Champions for health

This is the story of a project that we formally closed last week. It was an initiative called Health Champions and ran for two to three years in Leeds. It started when Jane Willliams, Strategic Development and Commissioning Manager (Mental Health) for NHS Leeds, brought the three of us, Isobel, Charlotte and myself together. We represented the third sector (St Anne's Resource Centre), NHS Leeds Integrated Commissioning Team and a service of Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust. Our brief was simple. To reach out to the 13 key non health homeless agencies in the city, bring them together and create a network of health champions. These agencies included St George's Crypt, St Anne's Resource Centre, Holdforth Court, Emmaus and the Street Outreach Team. These health champions would make strong the links with established health services, raise health and wellbeing as a key issue in their organisations and work with the NHS to co-create health solutions to their clients issues.

We had a very successful training session at the old Public Health Resource Centre in Armley. We followed this with seminars on subjects chosen by the health champions and also topical issues. These included dual diagnosis, personality disorder and TB. Some vibrant open days were also held. These were open to people using services and agencies and were all very well attended. In total there were three open days, the first two focusing on mental health and alcohol. The last was an event called 'Making the Links' and brought together housing, health, faith sector, food provision, law, probation, floating support, Public Health, sexual health services and many others. The aim was to have all these services concentrated in one place so services and clients could, as we entered a period of great challenge and change, be able to 'make the links to make the difference'.

The three of us worked hard for and with this project. What were the lessons? What did we see as we tried to build this from the ground up? There were many things we learned. We will try to pinpoint three that we think have real value not just for our personal learning but for the city. The first one was that there is no place where health stops. To explain this it's best to recall that Leeds has three health trusts (Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust, Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust) as well as Public Health which is part of the local council. When we did the training we did an exercise to see what health work these 'non health' workers were working with. We saw masses of health and wellbeing work across services and the city from these colleagues. We heard and saw how colleagues were dealing with everything from drug addiction to mental health to physical mobility problems. This shows us we cannot just put up a sign saying 'Not Health' as there is no place where healthcare stops or doesn't exist in the homeless sector. This has especial relevance for the city of Leeds. Its health and wellbeing vision is that we all create a caring and healthy city where the poorest receive healthcare the fastest. In the training we were seeing that this commitment to the poor and sick was something non-health services were already doing and working with. Health and wellbeing should be seen as the work of us all and we should all seek to align ourselves to work with the city and its vision.

The second lesson was how well the three of us worked together. Sometimes partnerships don't actually work together that well. Why did this one? We would venture the following answer. Two of us had already worked together (St Anne's and York Street) and there existed a very positive history of good work and respect.  There was also a real exchange of ideas and listening between the three of us as well as humour. We think the biggest help was that we all sought to give. We didn't focus on what we got but rather on what we could give (and interestingly got so much back from the project). Partnerships sometimes flounder because people may seek to control and not focus on the common good and goal. That didn't happen here. The common vision and this giving attitude made the project a real joy as well as hard work at times.

The last lesson is to use the common parlance - one size doesn't fit all. We could create the framework but we learnt we had to let it develop organically. Different services took the training and work and applied them in different ways in their services. There was something here about how we balanced management and autonomy. Again we would suggest that there is a wider lesson here. Often the best services have this balance and sometimes a tension resulting from this dual reality. Without the leadership and management there would be no steer or direction, Without the autonomy and room for growth there would be no creativity or new life. Sometimes holding this balance can be a challenge but in this tension lies the path of allowing possibility to emerge and making sure things stay on track.

This article has brought the three of us back together to remember and celebrate the Health Champions Programme. But we were not the stars of the show - just its organisers. The real stars were the workers and service users who worked in this programme. They were the people who worked in the centres, hostels and teams responding to need and linking in with health for the best outcomes. It's fitting to end by saying thank you to these good people who made the difference for the better and still do.
 

John Walsh, York Street Health Practice

Charlotte Hanson, Public Health, Leeds City Council
Isobel Worswick, Former Manager, St Anne's Resource Centre

Feeding our people

John Walsh speaking to attendees of the
Homeless and Food Aid meeting at St George's Crypt

I was asked to speak at St George's Crypt in Leeds at a Homeless and Food Aid meeting and training evening. This brought together services, faith communities and concerned individuals to work to make sure that people who struggle in Leeds can access food. A year and half ago the Yorkshire Evening Post pointed out how malnutrition cases seeking hospital admission has trebled in five years. Our good colleague, Councillor Lisa Mulherin, the chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board, said: "The numbers being admitted to hospital are shocking and potentially the tip of the iceberg. It’s an absolute disgrace that in a wealthy, modern nation we are seeing anybody turning up in hospital in that condition." Dr Ian Cameron, the director of Public Health in Leeds, said this increase in hospital admissions was a national not just local issue. 

This meeting was part of a response of a city to this issue. And it's not just homeless people or people on benefits but the low paid affected. We seek to draw together services and people to make sure malnutrition doesn't occur in our city and the hungry can be fed. Councillor John Hardy has played a central and leading role in this work. Services like York Street Health Practice and faith initiatives such as Unity in Poverty Action were involved from the beginning. These networks seek to draw together services and people to make sure malnutrition doesn't occur in our city and the hungry can be fed. See a piece in the Yorkshire Evening Post here. There is also now an All Parliamentary Inquiry into Hunger and Food Poverty, which is presently taking evidence under the chairmanship of Frank Field MP and the Bishop of Truro. 

The meeting had three speakers. It was a series which brought together people to look at needs which emerged alongside food. The topic this evening was mental health. I spoke about the Health and Wellbeing Vision of the city and need for a manifesto of good mental health work. This is not just what we do but also how we do it. The call focused on what we try to do at York Street - creating a positive space for the vulnerable, build kind and effective relationships and support people to identify and engage with hope. If we miss these things we end up working superficially. Emma Strachan from Public Health gave a great presentation about the positive work Public Health is doing in Leeds and how she will act as a link between the network and Public Health. The last speaker was Philip Bramson from Volition who spoke eloquently about mental health services in the city.

The meeting was attended by about 45 people - from churches, Adult Social Care, the Welfare Rights Unit, MIND, the food banks. Skyline, Archway and other organisations. Special mention must be made of Unity in Poverty Action who have done such amazing work in bringing together and supporting this network. The sense in the room was one of care and commitment to be with and support those in this city who find life hard. If we could bottle the energy, compassion and goodness of those present we would have a very potent power to move towards making Leeds the best city for health and wellbeing. This meeting showed me what makes great partnerships. Great partnerships are like a three legged stool. The legs are great vision, great work and great relationships. Pull one leg away and something essential is missing. Without vision we flounder. Without the work there is no change and without the relationships we don't connect.   

This blog is called 'Feeding our people' and it's true. The vulnerable, hungry and sick are not people - they are our people. They belong to our city and we are linked to them. We either work together to create comprehensive cohesion or struggle alone as isolated individuals. The first path is all about making a caring and supportive city. The latter is its opposite - it's negation. If we take the first way and really work together for this one thing will certainly happen, we will be the best we can be in the best city we can make. And that really is something worth working for isn't it?

 

John Walsh, York Street Practice