Out and About in Coventry: Community Voices
Healthwatch Coventry were pleased to attend the event Shaping Neighbourhood Health in Coventry, run by Warwickshire and Solihull Community and Voluntary Action (CAVA) alongside members from Public Health and Voices Coventry.
Many other service providers and voluntary sector organisations were present.
What is Neighbourhood Health
Neighbourhood health is a new idea which looks at how local people, health services as well as the Voluntary, Community, Faith and social enterprises can effectively meet people’s needs in the community, through working together rather than through hospitals or other health services. It is part of the governments ten-year plan to ensure the services people receive are more accessible in the community and meet their needs. There is “new emphasis on preventative care, early intervention and reducing the demand on public services”.
We looked at what would Neighbourhood health look like, what are the challenges for communities and services as well as how we can work together to make the changes happen. For example, looking at how people access services and how we can improve the sharing of information and communication between services and community members.
Collaborate is a big word, but it means looking at how services and people work together, listening, being respectful and agreeing ways of working together .
We Identified that there are lots of people with complex needs where one person accesses many different services and we talked about how these could work together to make people’s experiences/ care and treatment better.
Who are Healthwatch
At Healthwatch we want to hear people’s experiences to help improve services, to benefit everyone, and this change to Neighbourhood Health may have a long-lasting effect on people’s experiences of care, and the services they receive. We will watch and support this development with interest.
For more information about Healthwatch Coventry see
If you are interested in finding out more about Neighbourhood Health and how you could join in see:
www.uhcw.nhs.uk/our-services-and-people/our-departments/coventry-neighbourhood-health/
Call to action
Help us make a difference – tell us your stories of health and social care, whether your experience is bad/ indifferent or good let us know what you think.
Healthwatch can help you get your messages , views and experiences across to those in power to help improve services.
