BAME weight management report

Healthwatch Middlesbrough gathered information, via meetings, focus groups, outreach at events and social media to get a good overview of the public perception of the BAME Weight Management services. There was an evident lack of awareness and understanding of what services are available to support people with weight management, particularly within the BAME community.

Due to trends in the data collected, the Healthwatch Middlesbrough Board made a decision to further investigate dietary information and support for BAME communities regarding weight loss.

The methodology used included information gathered from Network and community events, meetings attended with local groups and feedback gathered from online and social media.

At the Healthwatch Network Event and Community Event held for asylum seekers and refugees, it was evident from the feedback received that not many people had heard about these services from Public Health or GPs. Many of the respondents had not heard about the events at all. It was noted that leaflets can be difficult to understand if English is not your first language and that adding pictures and diagrams can help. The report concludes that current methods of promoting services require review.

Healthwatch Middleborough made a few small inexpensive recommendations. As most people talked to were unaware of the service it was crucial that it was promoted by Public Health and the providers to be more joined up with the introduction of a Joint Communication Strategy.

Also, many people spoken to said that leaflets were not the best way to communicate information. Rather, they would prefer to receive the information from their community leaders. Healthwatch recommended that information is shared by developing “health champions” within communities. These champions would require basic training and on-going support by Public Health.