Sharing and Celebrating Patient and Public Involvement in Healthcare

For the fourth year in a row, NHS England offered community grants to voluntary/community sector organisations to share their good practice around involving patients and service users in healthcare.

Among the winners were:

• Healthwatch Essex who developed a short film to share how they involved patients and carers with direct experience of mental health services and worked alongside commissioners from seven CCGs and three councils to co-produce the first pan-Essex mental health and wellbeing strategy.
• Skills for People who created a short film to tell the story of Mindfulness for Life, the first programme of its kind, teaching Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction to people with a learning disability and/or autism across the North East and Cumbria.
• Catalyst Stockton who produced a video and infographic to tell the story of a ‘Community Health Ambassadors’ project developed in partnership with Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees CCG. They have supported over 35 volunteers representing a wide range of diverse communities to engage over 650 patients and over 50 organisations to spread NHS messages/campaigns and improve services using patient feedback.
• Family Action who produced a short video to tell the story of how young carers were involved in designing, developing and delivering the Young Carers Neighbourhood Charter in Durham, and the significant impact it is having on health services and other organisations supporting young carers across the County.
• Healthwatch Oxfordshire who produced a short film to showcase how they worked with men from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds to understand the barriers to healthy living and to raise awareness of free NHS health checks in the community.

For more information on community grants, please visit www.england.nhs.uk