At the start of UK Disability History Month, Richard Boggie, Health Partnerships Manager at VONNE, shares some of the ways in which VONNE and our partners are trying to make our region a fairer one for disabled people and their families.
First, in my role I’m actively involved in work to tackle health inequalities, through what is known as the ‘Healthier Lives and Fairer Outcomes’ programme, funded by the Integrated Care Board (ICB). VONNE was instrumental in securing funding to boost social prescribing across our region and those projects are helping to provide health and wellbeing support in a range of ways. For example, In Darlington, 700 Club and Darlington Association on Disability are providing outreach services, helping disabled residents and their carers to access the support available at the town centre Darlington Connect site – services they would otherwise miss out on due to access barriers.
The theme of Disability History Month UK for 2023 is ‘Disability, children and youth’, and at VONNE, we work with many organisations which support young people. For example, the aforementioned funding is also enabling Hartlepower CIC in Hartlepool to provide much needed activities for young people, many of whom have additional needs or disabilities. It has been great to hear about the difference they are making on the ground for disabled young people. You can read more about this project in this feature article.
These projects are part of our ‘Healthy Communities and Social Prescribing’ programme. This also includes our Health Champions work.
Health Champions played a vital role during the pandemic – they are members of the community who help connect public health and NHS services to often marginalised communities, including disabled people who face a range of barriers when it comes to accessing services. You can hear directly from volunteer champions Louis and Robin about their work and how it supports D/deaf and disabled people in Gateshead, in this short video.
Our work on health inequalities also extends to tackling some of the wider socio-economic factors that impact on people’s health and wellbeing, and disabled people are often disproportionately affected by these.
For example, we are working with partners on a region-wide Health Literacy programme aimed at making health information easier to understand so that patients can make better decisions about their care. This is hugely important to us all, but especially those of us with cognitive or sensory impairments.
In another project, we’re involved with addressing poverty and the impact it has on health and wellbeing. This work is led by Children North East, a fantastic charity that works with patients and communities to identify the financial barriers to accessing services, and helps service providers plan ways to overcome these, using its Poverty Proofing© process. We know that disabled people face higher levels of poverty than non-disabled people, so this work is vital if we want a more equitable health and care sector.
We’re also contributing to the Integrated Care System’s (ICS) Digital Inclusion strategy. As a user of assistive technology, I know how frustrating, unfair and disabling poor digital services can be. So, it’s vital that we have a plan to address these barriers that contribute to the levels of health inequality faced by disabled people across the North East.
Through our NENC VCSE Partnership Programme, we also help voluntary sector organisations to influence ICS plans and priorities at a strategic level - including our Learning Disability and Autism sub-group.
And of course, VONNE is not delivering support on the ground. That is done by many of our member organisations who I know work tirelessly to provides services, information and support to disabled people across our region. There are too many to mention here, but I take every opportunity when working with statutory partners to remind them of the vital work being done in the VCSE sector, and to invest more at grass roots level.
"I’m really happy to be part of a team at VONNE that cares about inequality and it’s great to be working with lots of people across the health and care system who are working hard to make services and support more equitable. But we can’t be complacent because there is so much work to do – health inequalities in our region are amongst the highest in the country, as evidenced by this Health Equity North report published earlier this year."
Despite the slow progress and the frustration that we’re not in a better place, I do think we are starting to make progress and I really hope that progress accelerates as we learn to work together.
Learn more about VONNE's Health and Wellbeing projects on our Programme Hub.