The successes and achievements made across NW London are thanks to the collaborative way we are working with partners and communities. This page highlights some of the impact and benefits that schemes are having on our communities.
There are many organsiations that make up the Integrated Care Syetem, we will always include lead organsiations in these examples to showcase the bredth of work and involvement.
Seeing the difference
Blood pressure outreach pilot in supermarkets and places of worship
During June, teams attended places of worship and a local supermarket to do blood pressure checks. Hypertension (high blood pleasure) is a greater risk for people from Black and Asian communities, so pop-ups were set up in locations to provide easy access. 500 people had their blood pressure checked, of which 38 people potentially hypertensive and 57 at risk of hypertension and unaware and would not have sought clinical advice.
Advice and follow-up support was provided to all who received a high blood pressure reading.
Special educational needs (SEND)
Anchor projects continue to progress to address health inequalities and get local people into employment. Recent success includes helping people with learning disabilities and autistic spectrum conditions into employment.
Health checks in places of work and community venues
Brent Integrated Care Partnership has been providing health checks in places of work. A key success was a visit to Greencore Food Factory, where 130 health checks were provided and 45 people where escalated for further health help.
Man Van is a popular initiative that has seen the van park up in community locations (including gyms) to support men with their health.
Barriers to cancer screening
Community organisations have helped us understand why certain marginalised communities often don’t feel comfortable or are unaware that they should come for cancer screening tests.
More than 80 participants actively discussed and delved deeper into the barriers across events. This not only provided a clearer understanding of these challenges but also generated a wide array of potential solutions. RM Partners, who lead our cancer screening programmes, are now engaged in the evaluation and implementation of several recommendations to overcome some of these barriers. Further community work to follow is also planned following the success of this work.
Volunteer to carer programme
To improve workforce retention and access for local people to start jobs and develop careers in the NHS the volunteer to career (VTC) programme was launched. Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, The Hillingdon Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. Over six months, 22 people secured employment in health roles (out of 55) and five joined further health education courses. For other volunteers, simply being asked if they would like to consider a role increased their interest in working in health.
Indiana (VTC Volunteer) “The VTC programme has given me exposure to different departments in the Trust which helped me understand what services we provide to our patients and how these services are being delivered. Volunteering has allowed me to gain confidence and experience at the workplace as well as improve my English skills. It has helped me overcome my language barriers and gain work experience in the Trust and it has allowed me to get a job in the field. As a result of volunteering my current job is a Digital Analyst at the hospital. I would strongly recommend VtC to other people thinking about volunteering as it has helped me a lot with my career”
Asylum seekers volunteering
A volunteering programme with asylum and refugees has started to provide access to volunteering roles across our health and care organisations. The programme provides people who don’t have the right to work in the UK support to volunteer. (A standardised and consistent process to support these groups has been developed.) The feedback from participants has been very positive, with the scheme providing access to develop new skills and the opportunity help people and give back to the community.