Race Equality Foundation - Research
Effective use of evidence to reduce health inequalities
Why the work is needed?
Evidence from our Better Health briefing papers and recent government documents acknowledges that people from black and minority ethnic groups in general and Bangladeshi groups in particular, feel they lack choice in health services. Because the majority of black and minority ethnic people in England live in the poorest areas with the least resources, they can receive poorer quality services and report greater dissatisfaction with them. These groups report less satisfaction with access and waiting times, and also in relation to communicating with health professionals.
Existing services are moving well towards promoting race equality. However, there is continuing concern that primary care trusts are not making the best use of their population data to address health inequalities. Also, that access to good quality GP care is still a ‘postcode lottery’. It will be important to identify exactly where the under-performance lies, and target the programme to some of these areas.
Additional evidence suggests that despite knowledge that health inequalities exist, practitioners struggle with how to implement change to reduce them. However, a solution to persisting inequalities may lie in developing the skills and knowledge of the professional and lay workforce through evidence-based learning.
Aims
This three-year programme aims to reduce health inequalities, through engaging front line public health personnel in evidence-based learning. This learning will equip them to better meet the needs of black and minority ethnic communities.
We aim to work directly with professionals and lay people from within local communities. For example, health trainers, health advocates and community development workers. These workers can be key catalysts in health promotion and prevention of ill-health. We will also work with those who recruit and support these workers.
What we will do
We will design, develop and test five new evidence based training packages, in twelve Primary Care Trusts within six Strategic Health Authorities. These packages will focus on a range of topics, some general -for example, The impact of racism on health and Communication with service users; others will focus on the health needs of particular communities for example, Gypsies and Travellers, Bangladeshi women; or Chinese men. The packages will assist in reducing health inequalities through use of evidence, clear information, outreach and prevention. They will facilitate front line staff to put evidence into practice.
Outcomes
There are three expected outcomes for this work:
- The proposed set of five learning packages will
increase the confidence, skills and knowledge of
front line staff and allied personnel working with
black and minority ethnic communities.
- It will increase the confidence of these personnel to engage and work effectively with these communities to reduce inequalities as required by the current health care agenda.
- In addition, these packages will assist the organisations who participate to better understand and implement the Equalities Duties.
- As part of their learning, front line staff in each programme will be asked to identify service users whom they will work with to implement the key messages and action from the programme. We would expect to gather feedback from up to 100 patients a year over the two 'roll-out' years.
- Key patient outcomes will be that a sample of patients linked to each learning package provides evidence of how they have taken steps to improve their quality of life, reduce risk and have better access, following on from the learning that front line staff have taken part in.
Further information
We are looking for NHS Trusts who may be interested in piloting the learning packages, and continuing to be involved at a later stage. If you are interested in finding out more, please email Ronny Flynn at the Race Equality Foundation ronny@racefound.org.uk or telephone 020 7619 6236/ 07841 903289.