Describe what you do day to day?
I manage the different services within the Health Communities Directorate which promotes ways in which individuals can improve their health, including offering health education sessions on a range of conditions that are more common in Black, Asian and other minority groups. Examples include Diabetes, Prostate Cancer, Tuberculosis and Long Covid. We also carry out community research to collect the views of people across Manchester on accessing health services through our Manchester Race & Health Service. Some of our services are delivered in partnership with others such as Answer Cancer, which aims to increase the uptake of breast, bowel and cervical screening across a range of different people eg different racial groups, LGBTQ, people with a disability, those with poor mental health.
Fulfilling aspect of the role:
The most fulfilling aspect of the role is managing a diverse team of individuals who reflect the communities that we engage with, who live in the areas that we deliver our services and can relate to local people. That basic starting point enables us to connect, learn, share information and hopefully encourage someone to make a change that improves their health. From our work on cancer it’s good to hear that delivering a cancer awareness session has led to someone taking up screening or that a Black man has had a early diagnosis of Prostate Cancer and gets treatment for it.
Greatest achievements?
Our work on cancer. Black men are at a higher risk of Prostate Cancer and we’ve been leading on this work since 2016 without any involvement of the NHS. Similarly, in our work on other cancers we’ve successfully encouraged people to go for screening. Our work on cancer clearly shows that BHA’s model of community engagement is effective. Our team is a small team, but we deliver as if we are an army because of the personal commitment of staff.
Challenges?
There are many challenges in my role but I can always find solutions. The biggest challenge for our team is to work with others to find practical solutions to deal with racial inequalities that still exist in health.
Coming up?
Across Manchester we are working with Big Life Centres and other partners to improve support services for people with Long Covid. From our work we know that people need to understand the condition better and access services. Also we will be involved in planning a campaign on prostate cancer in Black me with the NHS.