Community Engagement Report

2014 - 2015

The award winning success of the Bolton CVS/Public Health partnership allows us to develop and deliver health interventions in some of the most deprived areas of Bolton. The aim of our work is to educate and inform local people on issues that could affect them and hopefully improve their health and wellbeing. We encourage lifestyle change and help people understand the importance of self care and good health based on informed choice. We aim to reduce the health deprivation gap that exists between the most affluent and most deprived areas of Bolton.

The Community Engagement Team is a multi lingual, passionate team, working hard to reach as many people within the diverse and multi cultural communities of Bolton. The passion and drive to make Bolton a healthier town to live, work and play in means we have exceeded our targets in some areas of the agreed work programme areas.

By offering support, interactive training and information to people who might not normally engage with leaflets or health promotion we aim to empower participants with knowledge about their health and wellbeing. By educating people on screening and how to self check we hope more people will present earlier with signs and symptoms of cancer.

Through maintaining positive relationships with the participants of our health workshops and brief advice, whilst encouraging them to pass knowledge onto their family and friends, we are able to reinforce the information and training we offer over a longer period of time.

This report will focus on work which has taken place during the 2014 – 2015 financial year.However, where projects have been running for a longer period of time we have included information covering overall contact figures so that a more complete picture of how many people the project has reached can be conveyed.

Information in this report details the sex, ethnic origin and age of people engaged with; a selection of relevant comments, quotes and case studies from partners and participants have been provided to help demonstrate the workshops impact beyond the demographics of people reached.

Total number of people engaged with during 2014/2015:

Mental Health Awareness

Upsy Downsy – mental health board game

Project aims and objectives:

To improve the mental health and well being of participants
To encourage people to develop a personal plan of action
To reach and engage with as many people in Bolton as possible
To support people to recognise what makes them happy
To encourage people to take positive action to improve their mental health and well being

Upsy Downsy is a workshop that encourages participants to develop knowledge and skills that lead to improved positive mental health and social well being. Knowledge and skills are acquired via an interactive board game, with the ultimate aim of participants identifying a personal action plan that will improve their mental wellbeing.

This year Upsy Downsy was delivered for 50% of the year as we were working hard on developing some asset based community work in partnership with the Public Health team.

Hi -5 – Five ways to wellbeing workshop

Project aims and Objectives:

To improve the mental health and well being of children in key stage 2 education
To teach participants the 5 ways to wellbeing
To engage with as many children and young people in Bolton as possible
To encourage and equip participants with the skills to take positive action to improve their mental health and well being

Hi – 5 is designed to educate children at key stage two (10 – 11 years old) about the five ways to wellbeing:

Give
Connect
Take Notice
Keep Learning
Get Active.

The workshop encourages children to experience the five ways to wellbeing in an interactive, fun, team environment.It aims to teach children the value of positive mental health via practical activities and challenges focused on each one of the five ways to wellbeing.

As with Upsy Downsy this workshop was delivered for 6 months of the financial year.

Cancer Awareness

Project aims and objectives:

To educate local people on the signs and symptoms of various cancers
To encourage people to get to know their own bodies and conduct self checks regularly
To encourage people to attend routine screening appointments where appropriate
To actively encourage people to present at their GP with early signs and symptoms

Cancer can be a difficult subject for people to talk about; by using interactive, participative resources we engage with people about the signs and symptoms of a range of cancers.We deliver workshops and also use brief advice in opportunistic settings to engage and educate local people on the importance of screening, getting to know your body and raising the alarm sooner rather than later should there be a changes that are not ‘normal’ for you.

Cancer brief advice aims and objectives:

To start a conversation with people about the signs and symptoms of the most common cancers
To use participative and fun ways to engage with people making the conversation memorable
To encourage people to recognise what is normal for them so as to encourage early symptom recognition

Cancer Awareness Brief Advice resources:

Cancer Brief advice tools:

What’s in the box
Communicating risk
Jengage
Meet the Oddballs

Alternative Tobacco Awareness

Project aims and objectives:

To dispel the myths associated with shisha pipe smoking and chewing tobacco
To raise awareness of the health risks of alternative tobacco products
To explain the health risks of betel nut
To raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of mouth cancer
To encourage people to maintain a healthy mouth

The demand for alternative tobacco awareness is high based on the popularity and continued growth of shisha cafes in the area. Manypeople see shisha as a safer alternative to cigarette smoking. The workshop focuses on delivering key messages around the dangers of shisha and to bust common myths about the practice, the team utilise a number of interactive tools tailored to different age groups. These include a ‘Chemical Check List’, ‘Hubble Bubble Shisha Trouble’, ‘The Truth Game’ and the ‘Health Mouth Game’. We also incorporated oral health messages into the workshop to raise awareness on the importance of good oral hygiene and to help reduce tooth decay in the borough.

Alternative Tobacco Awareness Brief Advice

Aims and objectives:

To attract people’s attention
To raise awareness of the chemicals in the shisha tobacco
To provide a visual means of explaining the harmful chemicals in shisha
To promote the signs and symptoms of mouth and lung cancer
To explain the damaging effects of tobacco smoking

Tools Used:

Hubble Bubble Shisha Trouble
Smoker’s Lungs
Smoker’s Mouth
Jar of Tar
Shisha Surprise

Shisha Surprise:

This new eye catching game was developed this year to engage with participants during events as part of our brief advice intervention. Based on the fairground ‘lucky dip’ game participants pick a shiny box from the tub and read the statement on the outside, looking inside the box to find out whether this is true or false. If participants are lucky they may find a healthy mouth relatedprize inside the box. Prizes include mini toothpastes and ‘Shisha the Facts’ travel toothbrushes. The concept reiterates that some things look attractive on the outside,such as the shisha, but in reality can be very harmful.

New for 2015:

As strong links with groups who do not have English as a first language are being made, new increasingly visual ways to communicate key messages are being developed.

For example, when giving up smoking saving money is a key motivator. So a new visual game is being developed which involves destroying fake money, highlighting the amount of money that a person spends on cigarettes monthly and annually.

Funding has also been secured to have the Shisha Journey Game professionally designed. The game is based around a world map board with a series of magnetic shisha related questions placed around the board. Participants will use a magnetic shisha to move to each question, removing the magnet will reveal the answer. This tool will be particularly useful with ESOL classes; groups of young people.

Smoke Free Homes

Aims and objectives:

To encourage parents of children under 16 to smoke outside the home
To encourage visitors to the home to smoke outside
To reduce the risk of passive smoking to non smokers in the home
To raise awareness of the dangers of second hand smoke

The smoke free homes campaign was taken to school playgrounds this year and proved to be a successful means of encouraging parents to sign a pledge. All ‘pledgers’ receive a free goody bag which includes a smoke free certificate and window stickers. Smoke free homes is often delivered in conjunction with alternative tobacco awareness brief advice and our PATH project.

Alcohol Awareness

Project aims and objectives

To raise awareness of the recommended daily/weekly alcohol units
To explain the health impact of drinking over the recommended units
To encourage people to drink within safer limits
To encourage people to reduce the amount of alcohol that they drink

Comments from Participants:

Alcohol awareness was successfully delivered to the NHS Business Services Authority in Horwich who employ over 400 staff. A positive partnership has developed where staff members are given paid time out of their working day to attend workshops on our range of health topics.

Alcohol Awareness Brief Advice:

Aims and objectives:

To raise awareness of what constitutes one unit of alcohol
To encourage people to reflect on the number of units they are consuming

The community engagement team are delighted with the number of people who have been reached, via brief advice, on Alcohol and units. By starting conversations with people about alcohol they often end up reflecting on, and changing, their drinking habits.

Brief advice has been delivered at a range of venues with ASDA, BIDAS and Warburtons providing excellent opportunities to engage with large numbers of individuals.

Funding was received that enabled us to purchase key rings with important cancer and alcohol information. These helped to support the brief advice that we have delivered.

Prevention of Accidents in the Home –PATH

Aims & Objectives:

To reduce the number of accident related hospital admissions for the under fives
To raise awareness of potential hazards in the home.
To raise awareness of how to make the home safer for under fives
To promote the sleep safe message & advice regarding affordable warmth

The project consisted of three main strands:

Brief advice - delivered at larger events
Brief intervention – a 5 minute one to one conversation with parents at baby clinics using the doll’s house as a visual aid.
Interactive workshop

The workshop:

Using an adapted doll’s house, participants are asked to identify potential hazards placed in the different rooms of the house. This is followed by a discussion addressing how these hazards could be removed or the risk of an accident reduced. The workshop also includes:

The Age Game – what age can a child undertake certain tasks unsupervised?
Are you a risk taker? – participants reflect on their attitudes towards risk
Home Safety assessments – all participants take one to complete when they return home
A height chart with key safety information was given to each participant

Self Care

Project aims and objectives

To support individuals to develop the skills to take control of their own health and well being
To raise awareness of how to adopt a healthy lifestyle
To motivate and empower individuals to be an active carer of themselves
To encourage people to promote self care to others

The self care course is a 6 week course and we are therefore asking participants to make a big commitment, which sometimes they can find hard to sustain. Those who do attend all of the sessions find that they are able to make changes which, even though sometimes onlysmall, can make a huge impact on their physical and mental health and well being. We have delivered the course to a range of different groups with different needs, including a retirement housing group, a group of community learning ambassadors, a group for young adults with special needs and a support group for women who have been affected cancer.

New in 2015 – 16:

We are hoping to develop and maintain our relationship with multiple educational courses in Bolton, delivering self care sessions with their students when possible. We are also going to look at developing ‘bite sized’ self care sessions that focus on key issues. We continually assess the relevance of the course and adapt it to meet the needs of the people we are delivering to.

Case Study

New Bury Community Learning Ambassadors

‘My name is Annette Roberts; I am 32 years old, busy mum of 3, and was born and raised in Bolton.

I have been managing a long term health condition for many years, and I have always focussed solely on my physical health to try and improve the condition.

By taking part in this self care course, I have now begun to understand the link between emotional, social and physical health. I have identified ways in which I can improve my health condition by focussing on improving other areas of my health, and it has also given me the confidence to talk to others, including health professionals, about my health worries.

The Self Care training facilitators explained the course extremely well; they went into detail and answered questions as we went along, and if they were unable to give an answer to a question they knew where we could go to find the answer. They also gave out a range of leaflets which helped support our learning.

The key points I learnt from doing this course where, how to deal with anxiety and depression through looking at the model of change, and also how important it is to have ‘me time’ which we practiced by doing relaxation techniques in one of the sessions. The way we learned through interactive games helped improve my ability to self care in a fun and relaxed way‘

Facebook

Social media is fast becoming the most popular way to communicate with each other. With that in mind Bolton CVS have invested time in making sure the page we manage has regular health information and advice to reflect the work we deliver out in the community.

Subject matter: / Number of posts / Reach / Engaged with the post
Cancer awareness / 39 / 4344 / 419
Breastfeeding Friendly Bolton / 22 / 6348 / 955
Mental Health and Wellbeing / 24 / 3244 / 237
Prevention of accidents / 5 / 711 / 108
Exercise encouragement / 14 / 1711 / 175
Alcohol awareness / 5 / 571 / 13
Keep warm keep well / 6 / 1034 / 84
Tobacco/smoking cessation / 9 / 904 / 65
Self care & health check / 10 / 1121 / 54
Healthy food info / 23 / 4050 / 370

Breastfeeding posts seem to generate the most interest from the public with more clicks on the post and likes than any other subject matter. The most popular post last year was to celebrate Cherry’s coffee house becoming breastfeeding friendly, the post was viewed by 1009 people, shared 33 times and received 49 likes. On posts that were specifically aimed at health awareness achieved more than 24000 views/interactions.

Chlamydia Screening

Project aims and objectives:

To educate 16 – 24 years old on the importance of getting screened regularly
To offer opportunistic screening to people who may not present at their GP or a sexual health clinic
To reduce the number of young people in Bolton with Chlamydia
To encourage young people to take responsibility for their sexual health

This year the team hit target and achieved 120 local screens.

Breastfeeding Friendly Bolton

Project aims & Objectives:

To develop an interactive training coursearound breastfeeding good practice
To educate local business owners to the rights of breastfeeding mums according to the Equality Act 2010
To identify, map and promote 15 venues across the borough of Bolton that are happy to welcome breastfeeding mothers
To increase the number of breastfeeding mums visiting the town centre
To remove one of the barriers identified in previous consultations that reduces the length of time a mum chooses to breastfeed
To design and distribute recognisable stickers that makes it easy for women to identify where they can breastfeed in comfort.

Breastfeeding friendly Bolton offers local catering outlets free training to educate and support staff to understand and make sure their practice complies with the Equality Act 2010, this aims to protect local business from discrimination claims.

The scheme has been well received by local businesses and will continue through 2015 to March 2016 with the aim of awarding another 12 venues with our breastfeeding friendly award.

Community Engagement Report