The Harbour report

Founded in 1992 by Psychotherapist Jill Brown, The Harbour is an independent local charity that exists to support people in the Bristol area with the emotional pain, loss and isolation that comes with a life-threatening illness or bereavement. Healthwatch Bristol provided funding through the ‘Community Pot’ fund for The Harbour to carry out research that was designed to find out which groups of people find access to The Harbour more difficult, and what reasons are behind this difficulty.

Healthwatch Bristol analysed the demographic information that we have collected about people who used our service during 2016 and 2017, and compared this to demographic data on the population of Bristol. This enabled us to identify groups of people who were underrepresented in our client cohort.

The findings from this research include: There is a growing familiarity with talking therapies among BAME groups. The first ports of call are the people in one’s own close networks. The idea of talking to strangers about personal matters generates multiple tensions. The quality of the service is important. There are some practical and structural obstacles to accessing The Harbour.