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Oxford: How COVID-19 vaccine work created legacy for men's health
A community champions project set up to enhance COVID-19 vaccine uptake has been re-purposed to work on projects to tackle health inequalities. Men’s health is one of the priorities with plans for health workshops in the community and other workstreams for the homeless and on nutrition will also benefit men.
Like many local councils, Oxford City Council worked closely with its community to run COVID-19 vaccination pop-up clinics. It established a network of community champions drawn from a range of anchor organisations working with groups such as refugees, ethnic minorities, the homeless and people with mental health and substance misuse problems.
More than 80 champions were recruited, playing a vital role in ensuring good uptake of the jab. The success of the scheme convinced the council the approach could have benefits in other areas and over the last year the Oxford City Council and Oxfordshire Public Health has helped to fund their continued work.
Community Champions Programme Coordinator Fatou Badjie said: “It has been a huge success. We have provided training to the champions in things like mental health first aid and making every contact count (MECC) and worked very closely with them throughout.
“They are trusted in the community and their knowledge was an important asset in making sure we developed ways of delivering the vaccine that would engage the populations they worked with. It was off the back of that that we started thinking about how else we could work together. We did not want to lose the close relationships that had been developed.”
Working with champions ‘so important’
The network has now been slimmed down to 15 core champions who have helped identify eight priority areas for work to address health inequalities.
One is directly aimed at increasing access to health care for men. Ms Badjie said: “It came from our BME champions who highlighted the challenge in engaging men with health services. Part of it is socio-economic – insights gathered by these champions suggests that BME men are sometimes working shift patterns in low wage jobs that can make it difficult for them to prioritise using health services.”
Working with the community health development officers, who are embedded in local areas to provide insight and coordinate public health work on the ground, the champions have started to plan a series of men’s health workshops.
The plan is to run them every three months in four different parts of the city – three of the most deprived areas and the city centre. The workshops will be run in partnership with local groups, such as football teams, and the Oxfordshire Men’s Health Partnership, an umbrella body that incorporates the voluntary sector, councils and other public services.
Men will be offered health checks at them as well as being provided with information about cancers, such as prostate and testicular cancer, mental health, diabetes and sexual health. They will also get the opportunity to talk to stop smoking services as well as be given advice about healthy eating and physical activity.
“We want to take services out to them in a setting that they feel comfortable in. That is why working with the champions and the local groups is so important,” added Ms Badjie.
The power of storytelling
Men’s health will also form a key part of some of the other priority areas for the champions. One is aimed at increasing access to health care among the homeless population, the majority of whom are men.
A patient participation group is being set up to promote and improve services at the Luther Street Medical Centre. Meanwhile, one of the champions, Tony Buchanan, is running homeless health groups at local hostels and one of the city’s main homeless centres.
Mr Buchanan, who himself has spent time homeless and is now a member of the Lived Experience Advisory Forum, which supports homeless people, said the groups act as both a research and support forum.
“We use the power of storytelling in the groups,” said Mr Buchanan. “In Oxford we have a lot of people who arrive homeless and do not necessarily have local connections with services. They are very suspicious of health services and tend not to seek help even when they are ill with things like cancer. It’s a real problem.
“What we do in these groups is get them to tell their story. In doing so they really open up as they are in a place they trust surrounded by others with the same experiences.
“We are able to offer them advice and connect them with the local services that can help. We also use what they say to help inform and develop health services. Hearing from people with lived experience is essential if you are going to improve the way services are delivered.”
Another project is focussed on increasing education around food initiatives. The city has a network of food larders, community fridges and local community support groups where people can either get free or pay a subscription to get access to low-cost food.
Ms Badjie said: “They provide access to fresh and healthy food. But there is still a lot of confusion about them – people mix them up with food banks. We are working with the community groups to produce videos to promote them. One larder has already done this very well and has around 250 members.
“One of the messages we want to get across is that they are there for everyone. We are seeing men using them – refugees and single men, not just mothers and families.”