If your service needs to increase engagement with specific communities or increase uptake by specific communities, you can collaborate with the Health Outreach team (HOT) to reach more residents across Hounslow.
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Promote your service/s and provide accurate signposting to the public
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Gather feedback or insights on a particular health topic
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Help you to reach hard to reach communities
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Support your referral process
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Help you navigate the community landscape
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Be an advocate for your service
The Health Outreach Team is made up two sub-teams who engage with over 20,000 residents annually. The team is composed of local residents speaking a variety of languages, which enhances trust and ensures that outreach efforts are informed by first-hand community knowledge.
The team engage residents in discussions about their health concerns, offer mini health checks, and make referrals to relevant preventative health services. The team is funded by the BBP and therefore is available to support all Hounslow health services.
To learn more about HOT click here.
The Hounslow Sexual Health Team were struggling to reach, and engage with asylum seekers. The team reached out to HOT for collaboration. As they wanted to increase awareness of the sexual health service amongst asylum seekers and support them with their health needs.
HOT used their existing relationships with Hounslow hotels who were providing residence to asylum seeks to schedule joint team visits, where HOT could act as introductory service for the Sexual Health Team. This approach focused on building relationships with staff members at these establishments and then with asylum seekers.
This pilot approach was a great success, with both teams still delivering the same engagement model after six-months.
Various health services including the Covid-19 and Flu vaccination teams were struggling to engage with the traveller community. The Health Outreach Manager was tasked with identifying health barriers and establishing an engagement plan that would enable HOT to visit traveller localities in Hounslow, and once relationships had been established to introduce new health services to the various localities.
The Health Outreach Manager built a relationship with a trusted traveller community partner who was able to facilitate initial visits, once the community felt confident with these visits, frequency was increased and health conversations were able to take place. HOT then started to help communities to navigate local health services and overcome access issues.
This focused approach worked on building relationships and trust levels; it has now enabled vaccination teams to collaborate with HOT and attend joint visits.
Additional health services are keen to collaborate and are being invited to future visits, but over a planned time period to ensure a consistent trust approach is maintained.
If you would like to learn more about the Health Outreach Team, or request for them to undertake community engagement for your service, please contact Jaz.gill@hounslow.gov.uk