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Positive Action Blog April 2021

20 April

t’s been a busy few weeks.

This week I thought I will talk a little about one of the project’s objectives – promoting our services and how to access them. Free health care and the NHS is something us Brits are very proud of and rightfully so!

It has however been highlighted numerous times when we engage with different communities that some people are not aware of this vital service we offer.

The 111, 999 and the patient transport services are at the core of what is our business if you like. Every year, we take over a million calls from across our region ranging from life threatening emergencies to access to health information and medical enquiries. This is however not always the case in other countries. Therefore, part of the project is to educate everyone on how to access these vital services and also promote the use of our language interpretation service that helps navigating the process that little bit easier for those whose first language is not English.

I have been talking to people who resort to asking friends, families or neighbours to call the service on their behalf. This is great in terms of helping each other however in cases of emergencies this can impact quick access to vital life saving assistance. So, my challenge to you today is to have a conversation with those you interact with and remind them they can call us for free and they can get access to an interpreter all day long, all year long.

Community engagement

I attended a virtual event online run by Ola and Esther of Save the Woman, based in Middlesbrough. Save the Woman is an enterprise community group which supports migrant parents throughout the region to:

• Enlighten parents on laws and regulations in UK
• Promote better understanding between parents, their children, and young people.
• Teach children to understand our family values.

I also presented to African Women Voices, a women’s group based in Newcastle, whose objectives are to integrate the community together by sharing African heritage with people from different cultures. There was a consensus with the group on the lack of knowledge on how to access the Trust’s services and we will be setting up further sessions on how we can improve member knowledge and confidence.

We continue to get in touch with community organisations introducing the project and setting out virtual meetings to speak to the wider group members. With the ease of lockdown restrictions approaching, we will be looking into coming out in the communities and meeting people soon. In the meantime, to get in touch and let me know how we can work together.

Loveness