Bradford and Airedale PCT ... Getting closer to communities
“The mosques have access to people. We have access to knowledge. Together we can have a good partnership.” Ali-Jan Haider, Director of Equality and Diversity Partnerships, Bradford City Teaching PCT.
Working with mosques is critical to the PCT forging closer links with the community.
Dr Rafaqut Rashid is studying to be an Imam, a leader of prayer in the Muslim faith. He is also a GP at Picton Medical Centre in Bradford. So when Bradford City Teaching Primary Care Trust was looking for innovative ways of getting health messages across to black and minority ethnic communities in the city, he had an idea. "I know many of the Imams in Bradford personally," he says. "They are leaders within the community and I realised they could help us get positive messages across. They were only too happy to help."
Dr Rashid had already organised a series of events to raise awareness of type-two diabetes in the city's South Asian community - who are up to five times more likely to suffer from the disease than people from other backgrounds - but he needed to attract those most at risk. So he approached the Imams to make announcements about the events at prayer time.
The move was a success. The events, held immediately after Friday prayer in Asian business centres and town halls in Bradford, attracted hundreds of people, who were able to have their blood pressure checked and body mass index measured. Staff from the Trust were on hand to offer information about diabetes, including its link with coronary heart disease, and tips on healthy Asian cooking.
Findings
"The staff that helped out said the people they saw were quite different from the people they expected to reach," he says. "The people who usually come are health conscious anyway. But this group was unaware of even the basics. We were reaching people who might never have heard these health messages before, which is very positive."
The Trust's work with the city's mosques is just one of the ways it is reaching out, determined to find new ways of getting messages on health across to communities that might not be reached with conventional methods. Not only is this resulting in real help for people who need it, it is also generating new ideas about how to improve the health of local communities, including a plan to develop stronger links with healthcare providers in Mirpur, Pakistan, where around 40 per cent of Bradford City's patients originate.
Ali-Jan Haider, Director of Primary Care Equality and Diversity Partnerships at the Trust, says that building such relationships is important to ensure continuity of care for those patients with long-term or chronic diseases such as diabetes, coronary heart disease or mental health problems. "We still have lots of migrants from Pakistan who come to Bradford to marry," he explains. "A lot of people spend large amounts of time back in Pakistan visiting their families. If they don't access health services or their drug compliance breaks down their health can deteriorate to such an extent that they need secondary care by the time they come back. If we can develop good links we might be able to prevent that happening."
Among other initiatives, a relationship has been established with Bradford's Radio Iqra, broadcast during the month of Ramadan. The station now broadcasts 30-second health information sketches in a range of languages on antibiotics, colds and the signs and symptoms of diabetes. Ali-Jan says the moves are an attempt to overcome the barriers that have prevented the city's black and ethnic minority communities from having full access to health services and information.
Overcoming barriers
"The barriers are about language and about communication," he says. "They are also about the kind of cultural baggage that people bring with them from abroad such as the misconception common amongst Asians that if you are ill, taking to the bed with a hot water bottle will cure everything. "We need to be able to communicate effectively with those patients who find communication difficult. If they don't believe what we are saying because their culture says something else, then we are fighting a losing battle."
He says the Trust's work with those who have close links with the community, such as Imams, is essential to overcome such cultural barriers. "The mosques have access to people. We have access to knowledge. Together we can have a good partnership," he says. Dr Rashid says work with religious leaders can help the Trust reach people who might otherwise be overlooked in a city where more than 16 per cent of the population is Muslim. "It's a question of relaying information from one side to the other and increasing communication," he says. "It is essential that we are reaching every corner of the community. Involving faith groups is another way of doing this."