Bolton Health Consortium Event

In November 2011 the University of Bolton partnered with the new Bolton Health Consortium in a public engagement event. Led by the newly formed Clinical Commissioning Group; Bolton Health Consortium, it provided an opportunity for them to open a two way dialogue with residents of Bolton. For those attending the event it provided them with an opportunity to give their views on how NHS should spend cash, and to understand the complex decisions faced by the consortium. For the consortium it helped them access and understand the priorities local people hold, with very keen interest on taking people’s views on board.

The event was designed to allow contributions throughout the day. People sat on tables of 10 to 12 each with an experienced facilitator. They then worked through exercises starting with big picture questions including 'what should be the values of the NHS' before focusing in on specific issues around public health and prescribing. At the end of the day they took part in a game where they had to decide what the local priorities for the area should be; given a finite amount of resources.

The outcome of the session is being used by Bolton Health Consortium to help set their funding priorities for the next round of commissioning. 

 

Experience Based Design Collaboration with Bolton PCT's Orthopaedic Clinical Assessment and Treatment Services (CATS)

This current project involves Carole Truman and Vicky Foster at the University collaborating with Bolton's Orthopaedic CATS service in order to develop and pilot a participatory, arts-based methodology which will enable the service to capture patients' experiences. Through this research partnership, staff members at the service have received training in research methods from the University. This has enabled them to develop research questions and to employ video as a research method. The university is involved in providing technical support (for the use of digital technologies), data collection (following patients' experiences through the service), data analysis, report –writing and dissemination. Please see the news article 'Taxi Tales|' on the University of Bolton News.

 

Barrow Community Gym

Working with service users, service providers and other stakeholders to develop an evaluation tool for a community-based gym for people with mental health problems. A key aspect of this project was to evaluate the impact of 'service user involvement' and explore the meaning of user participation in the context of service delivery.

 

User Involvement in Service Delivery and Design, The RLC Surgery, Radcliffe

The RLC Surgery in Radcliffe is one of the new Darzi Equitable Access Centres. The surgery is located in an area which experiences high levels of worklessness and has a vision 'to make sure that patients' needs and opinions are at the heart of what we do' We have undertaken pilot work to scope a methodology for involving patients in the development of services which the surgery provides. Working with users, GPs, Nurses and other Practice Staff, we have designed a research protocol which has been submitted as a research proposal to the Research for Patient Benefit funding scheme.

 

Greater Manchester Public Health Practice Unit – Research Engagement with Hard to Reach Groups for Health Improvement

There is a public health concern that certain populations – namely the most socially and economically disadvantaged groups in society - are less well provided for by the health service. There is also, at present, an increasing awareness of the need to include patients in the design and evaluation of health services. The Greater Manchester Public Health Network and the School of Health and Social Sciences at the University of Bolton have been involved in discussions and pilot work around proposed programmes of research which link experiential knowledge with interventions that can be seen to have an impact on reducing health inequalities and improving health outcomes. Such collaborative working is also desirable in the opportunities it offers for shared learning and knowledge transfer. The research employed a participatory research methodology in order to engage with vulnerable groups and develop interventions that are not only acceptable to these groups but can be demonstrated to improve their health. Through the course of this collaboration, a number of particular health issues have been identified as potentially suitable areas of research, each involving a 'hard-to-reach' group.

 

NHS Blackburn with Darwen - Health Foundation Shared Leadership for Change (BME) Scheme

This evaluation, undertaken by Bob Snape, Phil Binks and Liz Such, supported the implementation of an intervention to effect change management in public health through a project designed to increase levels of physical activity and healthy eating amongst a target group of South Asian females aged 18-40. This project enabled front-line staff working with the target group to gain a deeper understanding of the socio-cultural factors relevant to the engagement of this group and to introduce modifications to service delivery which led to more effective provision and increased engagement.

Bolton Connexions (Positive Activities for Young People) Key Worker Scheme

Positive Activities for Young People is a national Government programme for young people aged 8-19. It offers arts, sports, cultural and educational activities for young people who are at risk. Bolton Connexions implemented a Key Worker scheme through which a cohort of young people involved in Positive Activities for Young people  who were considered to be most at risk of exclusion and involvement in criminal behaviour were assigned a Key Worker to support their school attendance and social behaviour and in the case of older children, career planning and work experience. We were able to support the implementation of the scheme through identifying good practice by Key Workers and disseminating this within the project.

 

Lancashire and South Cumbria Cancer Services Network National and Early Detection Initiative

We are currently involved in an evaluation and consultancy project with a funded pilot project of this initiative delivered by Blackburn with Darwen Healthy Living. This aims to develop cancer awareness within a BME (predominantly British South Asian community) through the establishment and training of a cohort of volunteers. A major aim of the project is to enhance levels of social capital within this community and we have been specifically asked to investigate this as part of our evaluation. To date the project has been successful in recruiting a cohort of volunteers and in training them to become active within the target community. The next stage of the project, and of our evaluation, will be concerned with the effectiveness of the cohort's engagement with the target community and the extent to which the project contributes to the growth of social networks and sustainable provision of culturally appropriate cancer awareness interventions.

 http://www.bwdhealthyliving.co.uk/|