Reaching out to our community
We strive to make sure we hear from a wide range of our diverse community as possible. We want to tell the people who make decisions and change things about the experiences everyone has with health and care services.
We understand that factors such as culture, location, wealth and education, environment and discrimination can lead to worse health outcome, and we support the strong consensus that this must change. We stand ready to help by doing more to amplify the voices of communities to go unheard and reduce the barriers they face.
Below is a collection of case studies highlighting some of the work we have carried out using the feedback we have collected from the local community which has helped us to make a positive impact to local and national services.
Support for visually impaired patients
Supporting people with sight loss to understand their medication labelling.
Health care for asylum seekers and refugees
Supporting asylum seekers and refugees to access Healthcare in Sunderland.
Carers Passport, supporting carers
Supporting carers to access the support they need to ensure their loved ones get the best hospital care possible.
Support given to a patient to get speedy access to the care they need
How we supported a patient with a terminal diagnosis to get speedy access to the services he needed.
Sharing information of local veteran support service with GP Practices in Sunderland
How we have raised awareness and promotion of a local veterans health and wellbeing service.
Supporting local people in emergency situations
As part of our signposting service we give local people, who will benefit, a Lion’s Club Charity, Message in a Bottle. The impact of this has been great.
Support for new amputee community group
How we have showcased the power of partnership work through the promotion of a support group for those who have had a surgical amputation.
Supporting Hospital Trust to gather patient feedback
How we are supporting the Hospital Trust to hear what patients think of their services.
Organ donation event
Through our Organ Donation Campaign and event we aimed to get people talking to their loves ones about organ donation, having open conversations, so if families are asked about donation of a loved ones organs, they know that persons wishes and are more equipped to honour those wishes.
Easy read breast screening recall letters now available for all patients who require them nationally
We demonstrate how self-advocacy works in joint appeal for easy access to breast services.
Helping to raise awareness of cancer signs and symptoms within the local BAME community
Members from the Bangladeshi community told us that the subject of cancer was something that wasn’t often talked about within the community and many people had very little awareness of cancer signs and symptoms.
Supporting the hospital to improve stays for patients from the Bangladeshi community
Our work with the local Hospital Trust has helped them to better understand the needs of patients from the Bangladeshi community, address some of the communication issues they face and ultimately improve the treatment and care of patients in general.
Improving access to baby formula for those families in need
Thanks to feedback from a local charity who supports those families most in need we were able to support services to introduce emergency provisions plan to address the issue.
Making social care services more culturally inclusive
Our partnership work has helped local social care service providers adapt services to better meet the needs of its customers.
Helping to improve hospital visits for kinship carers and those they care for
Our work with the Hospital Trust is helping to raise awareness of what a kinship carer is with staff which has resulted in a better patient experience for those children visiting the service.
