{"id":3711,"date":"2021-05-28T09:44:22","date_gmt":"2021-05-28T09:44:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/integratedcarejournal.com\/?p=3711"},"modified":"2022-09-28T09:58:24","modified_gmt":"2022-09-28T09:58:24","slug":"local-approach-health-inequality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/integratedcarejournal.com\/local-approach-health-inequality\/","title":{"rendered":"The local approach to health inequality"},"content":{"rendered":"
Good health is crucial to a good life, but it is not the only ingredient. Understanding how health fits into the wider frames of people\u2019s lives is essential if we are to truly enable people to live the healthiest lives possible.<\/p>\n
Dr Ekhator knows this first-hand. Working as a GP in some of the most disadvantaged areas of London, she understands the disengagement many people feel with their health services and is working to change the narrative.<\/p>\n
The Ascension Trust<\/a> (AT) is a faith-based charitable organisation that seeks to harness and equip local communities to work together. The AT is the architect of the well-known initiative Street Pastors<\/a>, in which local Christians across the UK serve as a presence on the streets to make them safer during the night-time economy. This model is now used within railways and emergency response settings. \u201cWe work with the national railways to cover areas which experience high numbers of suicidal incidents,\u201d says Dr Ekhator. \u201cLikewise in response settings, we send out trained individuals who respond to emergency situations to be a presence with victims and provide support to professional services.\u201d<\/p>\n The key understanding behind this work is that local people know their communities best – better than the systems and structures that are set up to help them. Equipping these systems and structures to embed themselves within communities must be an exercise in learning from those already working on the ground.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to understand fully the deeper challenges at play here,\u201d explains Dr Ekhator. \u201cWe might keep sending generic reminders to a woman who doesn\u2019t show up for her smear test. Why doesn\u2019t she turn up? Because she\u2019s on a zero-hour contract; she can\u2019t afford to come. We are surrounded by poverty but we don\u2019t see it.<\/p>\n \u201cUnderstanding these nuances and bringing health messages into communities in trusted spaces by trusted voices is key.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr Ekhator believes the Covid-19 pandemic has really revealed these knowledge gaps. \u201cIt is all well and good having Public Health England releasing messages and advice. But some of it is falling on deaf ears because people think \u2018well I don\u2019t trust you anyway so why should I listen now?\u2019 The pandemic has actually given us scope to go into communities and speak to them and begin gaining trust.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nA new approach towards vaccine hesitancy<\/h3>\n