The Staying Well programme was commissioned to tackle loneliness and promote wellbeing. Three community anchor organisations that run the scheme have developed bespoke approaches to engage men which involves a photography-themed walking group, a reminiscing group for older BME residents and a Men’s Sheds project.
Calderdale Council commissions a programme to tackle loneliness and promote wellbeing. Called Staying Well, it was launched 10 years ago and is delivered across four localities by three community anchor organisations.
To help, each locality has a micro-commissioning budget, funded from a variety of external sources and grants, that has helped support activities. The budget has ensured there is a thriving range of activities for people to take part in from chat and craft groups to gardening schemes, walking football and luncheon clubs.
There are the equivalent of 10 FTE staff across the programme, but key to its success is the use of local volunteers who help run groups and provide support. While Staying Well is aimed at both men and women, the programme has a number of initiatives designed to target men.
Diabetes and cancer awareness
In central Halifax, the provider Halifax Opportunities Trust has worked with Diabetes UK to equip its own staff with skills to run awareness workshops for men who have diabetes and then followed this up with sessions for their wives.
Halifax Opportunities Trust Community and Wellbeing Manager Farrakh Hafiz said: “We have a significant south Asian population and rates of diabetes are high among men. We have discussed managing the condition and eating well.
“But we recognised it was important to work with their wives too – they are often the ones buying the food and doing the cooking and have a huge influence on the health of the men.”
The trust has also worked with a local doctor to promote bowel cancer screening at a session hosted at its central hub and this has led on to a project with Macmillan Cancer Support, which has seen the recruitment of four community engagement workers to act as cancer prevention champions. The champions will run workshops targeted at the BME community and work alongside Staying Well staff and volunteers.
Halifax Opportunities Trust Community Programmes Lead Abrar Hussain said: “They will be raising awareness about how to spot the signs of cancer and why screening is so important. The south Asian community tends to be very conservative and there are cultural barriers which mean health issues like cancer don’t get discussed.
“We want to break that down. The champions will be working closely with our volunteers. It’s running for three years, but what is important is that there is a legacy of knowledge and skills left behind.”
From board games to organised walks
The micro-commissioning budget has also been used to get projects off the ground. This has included a Men’s Sheds scheme and Men United, a weekly social group for men held at a local rugby club.
There is also an organised walk for men that is themed around photography with the men encouraged to go out and take pictures as they walk around the local area.
“We have found that basing social groups around activities is a great way to engage men. Some can be intimidated about the idea of just meeting up to talk,” said Staying Well Team Manager Rachel Orton, who works for the North Halifax Partnership, which has responsibility for two areas.
Another example of this is a reminiscing group that has been set up for older men from the south Asian community with memory problems. Money was used to develop a tailored board game involving local landmarks with the men rolling a dice and then encouraged to discuss their memories of the places they land on.
Mr Hussain said: “A lot of these men emigrated here in the 1950s and 1960s and they have some fantastic memories of the time. This has been a great forum to bring these older men together and they are beginning to do more and more. We are now looking to get an allotment site so they can do some gardening.”
Ms Orton said this is one of the strengths of the approach. “Our goal is to get things up and running and then support them to grow. All three community organisations have their own skills and strengths that they can bring to the programme.
“But we also rely on volunteers. The people we work with go on to lead the groups and get involved in other projects – that in turn helps combat their isolation.
“Men can be difficult to engage to start with compared to women, but given the right support we know we can have a big impact. We have a telephone befriending service and now have more men acting as befrienders than women.
“But there is much more that we can do. Around a third of the people we work with are men. They tend to be younger and sicker and come with more complex problems. It‘s really important we reach out to them as much as we can.”
Council Healthy Communities and Places Public Health Manager Kate Horne is delighted with the work being done. “The community anchor organisations are not only supporting people to change behaviour, but are also seeking to addresses the wider determinants and connect people to community assets that can help healthy behaviours to be sustained.
“The strength of this is the support offered is more likely to engage local people, meeting the cultural needs of the population and often reaching those that can benefit the most.”