OUR HEALTH, OUR ACTION

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OUR HEALTH, OUR ACTION

• Tandrusti Research Findings
• Iram Naz (WEA Project Researcher)

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Why we did the research?

• Gather Experiences and Assess needs To map the
  health journeys of 50 BME/non BME individuals in
  Dudley
• Building Capacity and Sustainability To develop
  25 Community Health Champions
• Partnership Working To work with public bodies
  to reduce health inequalities
• Sharing and Developing To evaluate and
  disseminate the findings to shape future service
  provision.

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Research Methods

• Qualitative Methodology
• 50 In-depth Semi Structured Interviews
• Ethical Consideration
• Constant Comparative Analysis

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Stratified Random Sample Representing Tandrusti
students
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HEADLINE FINDINGS
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Health Attitudes

• Good Health
  Absence of Disease
• Being Older
  Having Poor Health
• Health Services
  Symptom Control
• Tandrusti aims to challenge these Health Attitudes

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Health Awareness

• Difference between health knowledge and health
  awareness
• Awareness of personal health developing after
  diagnosis or threat of disease or illness
• The need for contextualised and appropriate
  health information and promotion

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Accessing health Information

• Higher Literacy Level better access to health
  information
• Over 65s poor access to health information
• GP main source and gatekeepers to other services
• 90 preferred interactive health information to
  leaflets, books.

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Disparity in perceived and actual healthiness of
diet

• Awareness of healthy eating is quite good
• Importance of healthy eating is understood but
  not practiced
• Steady cultural shift and education required to
  change life long habits
• Food labels are very rarely followed by all
  groups interviewed

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Raising motivation and having positive role models

• Motivation towards exercising with Tandrusti is
  high
• Motivation towards a healthy lifestyle was low
• Lack of positive role models and support
• Being Healthy Major changes and a Big Challenge,
  Tandrusti aims to motivate learners through a
  supportive health education approach

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Dispelling subjective interpretations of
recommended physical activity

• How much physical activity should an average
  adult aged 18 and over do in a week?
• Answer 30 Minutes of moderate physical activity
  5 times a week (DoH and WHO, 2005)

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Physical Activity Levels of Sample
No. of people in sample
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Understanding of being physically active

• lt25 of people interviewed were doing ideal or
  sufficient physical activity
• Poor understanding of exertion and frequency
  balance in physical activity
• Physical activity stereotypes need to be broken

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Health Service Use
No. of Tandrusti Students using services
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Health Service Use

• Awareness of services is quite poor, restricting
  access and outcome.
• GP is the most widely used service, satisfaction
  is quite high with GP but low with appointment
  system
• Older South Asian patients have low expectations
  from the health services
• Veterinary consultations if communication is
  poor between health services and patient

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Cultural Factors and Health

• Modest descriptions of personal health by South
  Asian women issue for large surveys like Census
• Purdah (veiling) a barrier to mainstream
  physical activity for Muslim women, Tandrusti
  provides a culturally appropriate service for
  this group. More younger women coming forward as
  a result.
• Tandrusti has broken some cultural myths through
  mixed gender exercise sessions, swimming classes.
  

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Mental Health

• Physical and mental illness can be intertwined,
  easier to talk about physical symptoms
• Poor mental health Social, emotional
  dysfunction so unfavourable to be shared outside
  family
• Mental health services need to understand
  intricacies of cultural norms and their impact on
  attitude and behaviour

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Tandrustis Impact

• Reduced Blood Pressure readings in over 90 of
  learners
• Improved Posture, Stability and Flexibility in
  learners
• Awareness of the impact of exercise on the body
• Improved Self Confidence
• Emotional support and social networking through
  grouped exercise
• Motivation to improve health awareness
• Challenging cultural norms/stereotypes through
  mixed gender classes
• Exercise made fun and less chore like has
  increased participation
• Willingness to participate in further community
  cohesion activities

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Tandrusti Action Plan based on findings

• Increasing awareness of recommended Intensity and
  Frequency of physical activity
• Physical Activity beyond the Tandrusti class
• Raising awareness of integrated physical activity
  (at home/work etc)
• Signposting to other health/education services
  (particularly mental health)
• Learner led physical activity
• Setting up Additional Classes/ equipment
• Provision and evaluation of relevant health
  education/promotion
• Reinforcement of Key Health Messages through
  teaching and learning
• Training and implementation of Community Health
  Volunteers within Tandrusti.

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Community Health Volunteers

• 20 Volunteers recruited and trained from various
  ethnic backgrounds and age groups
• Volunteering activities Walk leading, Initial
  Assessment in classes, recruiting, motivating and
  Supporting, Stress Management

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Recommendations

• Individuals
• Community fitness services
• Health Policy makers, stakeholders and
  Practitioners

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Recommendations for Stakeholders

• 1. Increase awareness of ethnic disparities in
  health care among the general public, key
  stakeholders and healthcare providers.
• 2. Use evidence based practice guidelines
  enhance patient provider communication and trust.
  
• 3. Ensure adequate resources are allocated to
  meet the needs of patients likely to suffer
  health inequality and disadvantage.
• 4. Provide appropriate interpretation services
  where community need exists

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Recommendations..

• 5. Ensure health promotion is culturally
  competent consider issues of user background,
  literacy levels, accessibility and the
  translation and appropriateness of health
  messages to user lifestyles.
• 6. Consider incorporating and developing
  community health workers/ volunteers to support
  and implement multi-disciplinary treatment and
  preventative care programmes.
• 7. Implement patient education programmes to
  increase patients knowledge on how to best
  access health care and participate in treatment
  decisions.

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Recommendations

• 8. Integrate cross cultural education into the
  training of all current and future health
  professionals.
• 9. Collect data on healthcare access and
  utilisation by patients ethnicity and
  socioeconomic status. Report ethnicity data and
  monitor the progress towards the elimination of
  health care disparities.
• 10. Commission research to identify sources of
  ethnic inequalities, on barriers to tackling
  inequalities and to assess intervention
  strategies to reduce inequalities.

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Thank you