Supporting the uptake of cervical screening within the Somali and Turkish speaking communities in Islington

North Central London Integrated Care Board asked Healthwatch Islington to build on previous research on accessing cancer screening. Guided by learning from a Public Health Cancer Needs analysis, and support from North Central London Cancer Alliance, the project has focused on supporting uptake of cervical screening in the Somali and Turkish Communities. Somali and Turkish women have a higher refusal rate for cervical screening (9% and 11%) than the Islington average (3%).  They trained community volunteers to undertake participative workshops.  They reached 204 people.

Most women who attended workshops felt able to act on the screening information they were given.  Participants really valued being given information in their own language. Participants were effusive about how much they had learned. Many also expressed surprise. There was a genuine and widespread lack of awareness about cervical screening. This indicates that public health messaging is not getting through to these communities by other channels. Participants described the health workshop as an ‘eye-opener’.

Reasons for not attending included not being sexually active, time pressures, the invasive nature of the process, religious reasons, lack of awareness, access difficulties, lack of information and no endorsement from peers.

The top three things that would make them more likely to attend in future were getting married, better explanation of the reasons for screening and easier access, including interpreters.

Some women booked screening appointments after the workshops, some after the one-to-one conversations, but many more said they needed more time, needed to reflect on what they had heard. Most participants will need to hear these messages many times. Many of the barriers are profound.

Many participants still felt that they no longer needed to attend screening if they were divorced or their husband had died. It would be helpful to address this specific issue more prominently in future cervical screening messaging.