Mainstreaming
Equality and Diversity in the
Workplace and in Service Delivery
race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief, age
Patel Samaj BME Health Project
Patel Samaj undertook the task of carrying out a consultation process with the Hindu and wider Black and ethnic minority communities in Northamptonshire to ascertain the barriers, issues and anxieties for BME communities in accessing health and sexual health related services. It was clear from the outset that sensitivity, tact and diplomacy were required in order to wholly engage with the local BME community as issues of sexual health are still a taboo subject within some communities. Equally other key factors were barriers within BME communities that lead to non participation within consultation exercises.
It was imperative that these were identified and overcome or the Consultation process would not have worked.
Some of the issues identified were:
• Lack of trust: past experiences of one-off consultations that did not produce results can lead to a feeling of frustration among consultees and reluctance to get involved.
• Relevance: any engagement initiative will need to be made relevant to the target group or there is a risk of disengagement.
• Access: events and initiatives must take into consideration the need for interpretation and translation, childcare, travel expenses.
• Time: people may not have time to spend at meetings and it may be necessary to conduct events on an outreach basis and out of normal working hours.
• Lack of confidence: people may not be used to speaking up or may have had experience that their views have not been listened to.
Another important element of the consultation process was to build trust and confidence within the BME communities by highlighting how important it was to reflect their voices and experiences. This in return would give service providers a better understanding of how BME communities use health services, and what they want and need from them. It would also bring about a better understanding of the diversity within communities and respect for their particular cultural and personal needs. We also made it clear from the outset that this process is not just about consultation but also about an ongoing dialogue and real involvement in planning, commissioning and evaluation of future service delivery.
The consultation and initial engagement process took a total of 6 months; the project started in Oct 2009 and finished in March 2010. This report highlights key issues and recommendations from the consultations to ensure effective future service provision.
“Without Improving BME Community Health, it will be hard to really improve population health and well being. Someone needs to make sure that overall statistics aren’t improved in just one area and one community, so that makes it look like progress has been made, while others are left behind”