Tackling ethnic health inequalities: learning from Black and Asian Community Leaders
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Healthwatch Hertfordshire decided to undertake a deep dive into Black and Asian people’s experience of health and social care after their survey into vaccine confidence was largely answered by White people. They engaged with stakeholders to inform further work with Black and Asian people. They spoke to 43 community groups. Key findings included:
- There is a deep mistrust in government and healthcare bodies, resulting in less involvement or engagement from Black and Asian communities on issues relating to healthcare.
- Black and Asian people feel undervalued or concerned about not being treated equally or fairly by healthcare professionals and local government.
- There is a feeling that Black and Asian communities are only engaged with when it suits the needs of the NHS or local government. Community leaders instead wanted more meaningful engagement, that demonstrates a longer-term commitment to listening and building trust.
- Experiences of areas with lower Black and Asian populations are being ignored.
- One size does not fit all. Community leaders stressed the damage of homogenising lots of different groups, cultures and communities into the term ‘BAME’.
- Quick simple solutions for complex issues don’t work. Community leaders stressed the importance of designing interventions from a place of understanding.
- Representation matters – leaders discussed the lack of representation of Black and Asian communities, especially in leadership positions. This means that individuals sometimes have nowhere to take their concerns and are unsure their concerns will be heard if they do.
- Linked to the point above, leaders also talked about the complexity of representation. They highlighted that the use of Black and Asian celebrities encouraging vaccine uptake lacked credibility for a lot of people that didn’t share the same lived experience as a celebrity. This resulted in the counterproductive effect of people feeling that the vaccine was being forced upon them.