On Saturday 20^th February, we attended Black Action for Health’s African-Caribbean Health Day. This event aimed to provide experts in the field with a platform to raise awareness of the health issues that are of particular concern to the African and Caribbean community. A key part of this event was highlighting the fact that ur community are more likely to die too early from or suffer from preventable diseases.

The event was hosted by Dr Charlie Easmon, Medical Director at Your Excellent Health Service and the actor Hugh Quarshie with remarks from the president of the Royal College of Nursing Cecilia Amin and the Mayor of Lambeth Donatus Anyanwu.

Obesity

The event began with a presentation by Dr George Grimble on ‘The Importance of  a Healthy Weight and Low Waist Size’. From Dr Grimble we learnt that the prevalence of obesity has increased significantly over the past 20 years and those who are overweight or obese are at increased risked of premature death with many diseases being linked to obesity. Additionally, there is a huge cost associated with obesity with a recent report by McKinsey and Co stating that the cost of obesity is $2 Trillion.

Dr Grimble stated that the rise in obesity is due to our lifestyles becoming remarkably sedentary which means we are in a positive energy balance (we aren’t burning off what we eat) and this makes us all more likely to gain weight.  He explained that for many people weight gain is gradual and occurs from 30 years of eating what equates to 200-240 large meals. What this means  is that when it comes to weight loss  we have to “uneat” these 200-240 meals and this will take a long time, there is no quick fix to weight loss.  He stressed that mainstream diets don’t work over the long-term and that to achieve long-term weight loss requires a change in lifestyle and the right motivation – the desire to achieve good health.  He told the audience there is no secret to weight loss it’s all about good nutrition, it’s tough but we can all do it.

Dr Grimble spoke about research that showed that what is important for weight loss is reducing our energy intake (i.e. what we eat). This is more important than exercise. Whilst exercise is good for overall general health and some weight loss we can achieve more significant weight loss through managing our energy intake.  Additionally, what we have to do is pay attention to belly fat, this is what increases our risk of a number of diseases such as diabetes. It was interesting to note that Asians and the African-Caribbean community are more sensitive to the effects of belly fat and people from these communities with belly fat are more likely to develop diabetes, stroke, hypertension and metabolic syndrome  than their white counterparts with the same amount of belly fat.  Because of this it is more important for black people to be as lean as possible and to be as physically active as possible.

Blood Pressure
Next, we heard from Prof Graham McGregor who delivered a presentation on ‘Raised Blood Pressure and the Black Community’. In his presentation Prof McGregor stated that raised blood pressure is by far the biggest cause of death in the UK with the risk of ill health starting at 115mmHg.   He explained that a raised blood pressure kills through direct effects but also indirect effects. He demonstrated that people with low blood pressure are at a lower risk of stroke, heart disease and many other health conditions and the most important strategy that we can use to improve people’s health is that of reducing everyone’s blood pressure, which is a more effective strategy than treatment.

Prof McGregor spoke about treatment and stated that there are a number of drugs available to treat high blood pressure with very clear guidelines on how they should be used, the use of these drugs can be confusing. He stated that black patients shouldn’t use ACE inhibitors as these aren’t effective in this population.  He reminded the audience that if you have high blood pressure you have to do something about it. You have to take control of your treatment and be assertive with your GP and make sure you’re getting the best care.  He stated that he sees many patients being poorly managed so it’s important that guidelines are followed.

Prof MacGregor then discussed black people and salt. We learnt that up to 5000 years ago we weren’t eating very much salt and we’re now eating significantly more salt than our body needs. We were surprised to learn that 80% of our salt intake is hidden in processed food, takeaways, fast food and restaurant food. He stated that there has been a huge drive to get the food industry to reduce the amount of salt in their products. Over the past few years there has been some success in this and a 30% reduction of salt in many products such as bread has been achieved which has resulted in an overall reduction in the public’s blood pressure.   We learnt that black people are more sensitive to salt’s effect on blood pressure  making salt toxic to black people. Unfortunately we are addicted to salt with the majority of black people using large amounts of salt when preparing food. He recommended that all black people throw away their salt, stock cubes and salted seasonings stating that it takes four weeks to get accustomed to food cooked without salt.

Finally, Prof McGregor discussed genetics and said that there is a genetic element to high blood pressure, but it’s not clear what specific genes are involved; there are about 30 possible genes which researchers are looking it. He stressed that what they do know is that these genes are of no importance if you don’t eat salt.

These presentations really stood out for us

These two above presentations on obesity and high blood pressure really stood out for us as these are conditions that are very common in the African-Caribbean community and can easily be prevented through a healthy lifestyle and this was clearly articulated in both presentations.

Other presentations

Other presentations on the day were very interesting and these included a talk by Dr Adeola Olaitan on ‘Cancer of the Cervix –Inevitable or Avoidable’ where we learnt that through cervical screening and the HPV vaccination cervical cancer can be prevented . We also heard from Mr Leye Ajayi on ‘Prostate Cancer’ where he discussed black men’s high risk of developing this disease and the challenges that exist in diagnosis without a screening test. Finally, we heard from Dr Michael Rudenko who spoke about allergies.

As well as the main presentations we heard from Levi Roots who discussed eating ethically,  Brenda Thompson-Murray who explored the role of carers and Iyamide Thomas who gave an overview of sickle cell and the work of the Sickle Cell Society.

An excellent event

This was an excellent, informative event and we’d like to thank Dr Charlie Easmon for organising this event and look forward to the next one.

On Monday, we attended Breast Cancer Care’s reception in Parliament where they launched the findings of their research into the needs of Black, Asian and minority (BAME) women after treatment for breast cancer.   Their research was funded by the Big Lottery Fund and was a collaboration with King’s College London.

This event was hosted by Dawn Butler MP, whose mother and sister were affected by breast cancer. Speaking at the reception, the Chief Executive of Breast Cancer Care  Samia al Qadhi, summarised the findings stating that BAME women felt  a greater sense of isolation after treatment, there was still a significant amount of stigma associated with breast cancer in certain cultures, there is a lack of culturally sensitive support, a number of communication and language issues, and services do not always meet the needs of BAME women.  Breast Cancer Care explained that to address these issues they piloted a new culturally inclusive service in 2015 called PROWESS (Promoting Recovery, Wellbeing, Equality and Support in Survivorship). This service supported the self-management of BAME women after their hospital-based treatment for breast cancer. You can read more about PROWESS here.

Breast Cancer Care stated that policy-makers must consider the needs of BAME women in the implementation of current cancer strategies and ensure that new policies are inclusive and that everyone working in this area has to develop an understanding of how services can be culturally adapted.

During the reception we also heard from Heather Wilson from the Black Health Initiative in Leeds. Ms Wilson was very supportive of the research and its recommendations and stressed the importance of effective partnerships in addressing the issues raised during the research project.

We applaud the work being done by Breast Cancer Care to address the inequalities that exist in this area and look forward to seeing the next phase of this work. We were pleased to have been a part of the working group for PROWESS and hope that this programme will be launched nation wide.

 

On 30^th September we teamed up with Black History Walks to help organise a Queen Nzingha Lecture on fibroids.  The Queen Nzingha lecture series is a regular event developed by Black history Walks and is a series  of lectures  delivered by black women  with expertise in a particular topic. It aims to achieve three things: give black professional women a platform to discuss their area of expertise;  give audiences the opportunity to learn about a specific topic; and provide a forum to debate topical issues.

We were delighted to be asked to help organise the most recent event which focused on fibroids. This was a great opportunity to raise awareness and also give women affected by fibroids the opportunity to learn more about this condition, share their experiences and meet other women with fibroids.

On the day we were delighted to have an interesting agenda which included an overview of fibroids by Abi Begho of The Lake Foundation, a really inspiring presentation by Amanda Epe on her personal experience of fibroids and finally a presentation by Dr Sydney Dillard on treatment options.

Last week, we attended Croydon Clinical Commissioning Group’s (CCG) Annual General Meeting. This was an interesting meeting that gave us the opportunity to learn more about the work of the CCG and what health challenges residents of Croydon face.

What are Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs)?

For those of you who might not be familiar with Clinical Commission Groups they are groups of GPs who work together to plan and develop local health services in England. They do this by buying health and care services such as planned hospital care, urgent and emergency care, community health services and mental health and disability services. CCGs are a fairly new concept and were established in 2012 partly replacing Primary Care Trusts. There are 211 CCGs in England covering the 8,000 GP practices across the country.

Connecting with the Public Through their AGMs

Each CCG holds an annual general meeting (AGM), which is open to the public, to provide an overview of their work during the previous financial year.  We decided to attend Croydon CCG’s AGM to get a feel for what health conditions need a bit of focus and to understand if The Lake Foundation can address any of the challenges that might exist.

Croydon CCG’s AGM

Croydon CCG’s annual general meeting began with a welcome by Dr Tony Brzezicki, the clinical chair of the CCG, and this was followed by short presentation from Paula Swann, the Chief Executive, who gave an overview of the CCG’s achievements and performance for the 2014/2015 year. From Ms Swan’s presentation we learnt that the CCG has been focusing on community and mental health services and has been transforming the way that care is delivered in Croydon by developing new care pathways for cardiology, COPD, diabetes, musculoskeletal and falls. Additionally they have provided better access  to care for people with mental health problems through a range of new initiatives and have supported patients with diabetes through their diabetes management course. Furthermore patients with heart problems are now seen and treated more quickly in community clinics and children with asthma have better support through Croydon’s paediatric asthma service.

Ms Swan stated that the areas that need focus include improving waiting times in A&E, ambulance response times and  the quality of care for people with learning disabilities.

The focus then switched to mental health and this was a very interesting and eye opening session that highlighted the extent to which Croydon residents are affected by mental illness. Firstly we heard from a patient who talked about her long journey with mental illness, she spoke of her ups and downs and commended that great work that local charities have played in providing her with support. She specifically mentioned Mind In Croydon whose many services have helped her manage her condition and “live well with my mental health needs.” This really inspired us and clearly demonstrated the  significant impact that local charities can have.

We then heard from Dr Bobby Abbot a GP and the CCG’s clinical lead for mental health. He provided an overview of the impact of mental health in Croydon stating that 1 in 6 Croydon (67,000 people) residents have a mental health problem at any one time, half of all lifetime mental health problems begin before the age of 14 and that poor mental health affects a person’s physical health, education, employment, relationships, finances and housing. When he discussed who was most at risk it made for grim reading (or should I say listening) for the black community. He stated that the black community are seven times more likely to be affected by psychosis. Additionally he mentioned that anxiety and depression are the most common mental health issues in Croydon and these problems are projected to increase by 5% over the next couple of years.

To address the aforementioned mental health problems a number of services are being developed or expanded and these include: Personality Disorder Service, Early Detection Service, Primary Care Mental Health Support and Extension Home Treatment, just to name a few.

Finally we heard about the CCG’s work on Out of Hospital and Integrated Care. This work included developing or improving the following: co-ordinated care, roving GPs (for fast support), rapid response,  rapid acute medical unit (for integrated care), end of life care and the pharmacy discharge pathway.

 

Our Thoughts

This was a very interesting meeting giving a good overview of some of the health issues facing residents in Croydon. It once again highlighted the need to address mental health in the black community and we’re now going to go away and think about this and explore what approach we can take on this matter.

You Can Get Involved

You can get involved in the work of the CCG and help shape the way that health and social care is delivered in Croydon. The CCG has a Patient and Public Forum which meets regularly. We encourage you to attend to ensure that the views of the African and African-Caribbean community are represented as services are being developed. For more information please email  getinvolved@croydonccg.nhs.uk

On Wednesday 5^th August we were delighted to take part in TWYLYTE VIP’s Creative Arts, Entertainment and Networking Summer Event.  This was an excellent event that brought together representatives from the music, film, fashion and media industries and gave us the prefect opportunity to raise awareness of a very important health issue, cervical cancer.

The event was hosted by Jaye of TWYLYTE PR and recording artist Kele Leroc who started the night’s proceedings with live interviews featuring actor Femi Oyeniran (Kidulthood and Anuvahood); Emmanuel Anyiam-Osigwe, the director of the British Urban Film Festival; Nadine Woodley and Dani Mosely writers of the stage play The Forty Elephants; and Martina Barnett from Inside Out.

After the inspirational and informative live interviews we moved on to the ‘FASHION Meets AWARENESS’ Magnetic Fashion Show.  FASHION Meets AWARENESS is the brain child of Celena of Magnetic Fashion Connections and it aims to showcase creative designers whilst highlighting important health issues – an excellent idea. The fashion show featured a collection of creations from a new wave of fashion designers that included Erwin Michalec, Sonia Funnell and Dee Naturals. Following the fashion show we delivered the awareness part of FASHION Meets AWARENESS  with a short presentation on cervical cancer covering what is cervical cancer, what causes it, risk factors, screening, the HPV vaccination and the symptoms.

This was a really fun event and we were very grateful to be given the opportunity to raise awareness of cervical cancer and we’d like to say a big thank you to Celena from Magnetic Fashion Connections for inviting us to take part in this event.

On Saturday 18th July, we were honoured to deliver a presentation at the RNCJ’s 2nd Annual Elderly Conference. The theme of the conference was enhancing health and wellbeing and in keeping with that theme we spoke about aging healthily. We stressed the importance of combating the negative perceptions, stereotypes and narrative around the elderly which is very disempowering, and replacing this with a more positive narrative that empowers the elderly and enables them to live the best life possible; this means creating opportunities for the elderly to remain active.

We discussed the health challenges associated with aging and how these can be overcome through lifestyle changes particularly keeping active, eating a healthy diet, keeping the mind active and staying connected to friends, family and the wider community.  And, we finished off by reminding attendees that our ‘Golden Years’ can be the best years of our lives as we have a lot of time and flexibility. This gives us the opportunity to do the things that we’ve always wanted to do, pursue our passions, make a difference in our community and spend time with our loved ones, but we can only enjoy this phase of our life if we are healthy.

Attendees also heard from Sabrina Jantuah from Age UK who spoke about Community Connections, a project that is aiming to tackle isolation in Lewisham by encouraging people to access local services. Sabrina stressed the need for projects like community connections as 51% of people who are over 75 live alone and this has a negative effect on their wellbeing.  Sabrina’s talk was supported by a presentation from  Jeremy Sharpe of The Link who also highlighted the scale of the problem of isolation of the elderly in the UK. He provided data that made for grim reading – 500,000 older people in the UK spend Christmas Day alone and over 5 million older people consider their TV to be their main form of company. Jeremy described how The Link are combating isolation by working with churches to develop befriending programs where volunteers regularly visit those who live alone.

It was also really nice to hear of all the great work that the RNJC is doing to support the elderly in their local community in Lewisham. They run a monthly keep fit class, are implementing a befriending programme with support from The Link and are starting a coffee morning.

This was a very enjoyable and informative event and we’d like to say a big thank you to the conference organisers, particularly Shola Fiberesima.

On 18^th June we were invited by Croydon Council to have a stall at the first annual Croydon Voluntary and Community Fair. This event was organised to allow charities and community groups in Croydon to showcase their work to attendees which included frontline Croydon Council staff, the general public, potential funders and representatives from the private sector.

We had a wonderful time on the day as it gave us the perfect opportunity to meet other charities to learn more about their great work, discuss ideas and get advice on common challenges. We were particularly delighted to meet Fatima Koroma from the Community Food Bank and learn of the work they’re doing to support vulnerable families and individuals. Additionally, it was wonderful to learn about the Mighty Men of Valour and the Ministry of Empowerment who are working to support and empower men and women in Croydon.

Speaking on the day was the mayor of Croydon, Councillor Patricia Hay-Justice who officially launched the fair and Councillor Mathew Kyeremeh, the deputy cabinet member for communities, safety and justice.

This was a really useful day allowing us to raise awareness of our work, connect with some really inspirational people and meet representatives from Croydon Council in person.

We’d like to say a big thank you to Croydon Council for organising this event and also for their generosity in designing and donating pull-up conference banners to every single stallholder. We love our new banner!

On Sunday 14^th June we had the pleasure of delivering a black health awareness workshop at the Right Now Jesus Centre in Catford.  It was wonderful to work with such an enthusiastic, friendly and energetic congregation; it was really a fun two hours, despite the serious topic.

During the workshop we covered type two diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease, prostate cancer and fibroids. We talked about what these conditions are, their risk factors and why they are more common in the black community. We also asked the congregation to work in groups to discuss these issues and encouraged attendees to  adopt a healthy lifestyle by eating a healthy  diet and getting active. We went into detail on some of the specific changes that people can make to achieve a healthier lifestyle and finished off the workshop by asking attendees to think about three things that they will change as they work towards a adopting a healthy lifestyle.

This was  really good event and we thoroughly enjoyed spending time with such an engaged audience.

“This workshop was beautifully presented!”

 

“Excellent, I learnt a lot.”

 

“Very informative.”

As a small charity with limited resources communications and PR can be a challenge, but it is important.  We completely understand the power of an effective communication and PR strategy in helping us reach our community with key health messages particularly around cancer and fibroids, our two main focus areas at the moment. With this in mind when we heard about Find a Cure’s workshop on ‘Communications and PR for Small Patient Groups’ we jumped at the opportunity to attend.

This workshop was held today and didn’t disappoint. It was an excellent workshop with very useful presentations from experts in the field of communication. In the first presentation, delivered by Sorsha Roberts, Online Communications Officer at the AKU Society, we learnt of the importance of social media for patient groups. Sorsha highlighted the statistics around the use of social media stating that a significant number of people were using social media to find health information and that 90% of people who found health information on social media trusted it and would use it. Furthermore Facebook is the fourth trusted source of health information and this is because information is delivered in a way that is less clinical, it’s clear, easy to understand and it’s delivered in a friendly and informal environment.

We then moved on to our next speaker Stefania Rucci from  Say Communications who spoke about ‘Working with the media’. This was a very informative presentation where Stefania started with an overview of some of the challenges small charities face in getting noticed in the media. These challenges included: competition with other health messages, the media having its own agenda which may not align with a charity’s agenda and small charities have fewer resources making it hard to break through in the media.  Despite these challenges it is possible to mount a successful media campaign but it needs some planning and the adoption of some key principles. These include: developing a compelling a story; getting to know your media and aligning your agenda with theirs;  targeting media to ensure high impact and high relevance; positioning your organisation as the expert; and always being ready . Additionally Stefania said it was important to produce great content, understand your audience, understand the different types of media (specialist,  national papers, local papers, magazines, TV, radio, bloggers and social media) and tailor your content to fit different types of media, i.e. be able to tell your story in a different way so it appeals to different audiences.

On Wednesday, a group of us attended Centric Community Projects‘ Women’s Equality Exhibition in Croydon. This event forms one of a series of nine exhibitions that will cover each strand of equality as defined by the Equality Act 2010.

The exhibition was a comprehensive look at the history of the women’s equality movement starting on the 6th floor of the Norwich Union Building and ending on the 3rd floor.

We started our journey through the exhibition on the 6th floor where we learnt that the women’s equality movement formally started in 1867 with the formation of the London Society for Women’s Suffrage, an organisation that campaigned for women’s rights.

Over the four floors of the exhibirion we were taken through the many campaigns, challenges and victories of the women’s equality movement. Such as:

• the passing of the women’s property act in 1870 allowing women to own property,
• the formation of the Women’s Social and Political Union in 1903,
• the contribution that women made during World War II,
• the first general election where women were allowed to vote (1929)
• the moment when women were first allowed to access the legal and accountancy professions (1920)
• the appointment of the first female minister of state, Barbara Castle the Minister of Transport (1965)
• Britain’s first female Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher (1979)
• Equal pay for women (1985!)
• The first female Speaker of the House, Betty Boothroyd (1992)
• The major success of the female genital mutilation campaign with the passing of the Female Genital Mutilation Act in 2003

The exhibition ended with an inspirational look at ‘Women of Authority, Influence and Achievement’. This part of the exhibition put the spotlight on women who are considered to be the “movers and shakers” within their field.

It was nice to see the range of professions that were highlighted – women’s rights activists (Emmeline Pankhurst), politicians (Rt Hon Harrit Harman), humanitarians (Camila Batmanghelijh), scientists (Prof Dame Jocelyn Bell-Burnell), doctors (Prof Dame Sally Davies), nurses (Dame Julie Moore), engineers (Dame Sue Ion), business leaders (Karren Brady) and sportswomen (Clare Balding OBE)

African Caribbean Women and Equality

It was also great to see African Caribbean women highlighted in the exhibition. From the exhibition we learnt that in 1978 The Organisation of Women of African and Asian Descent was set up. This was the first black women’s organisation in Britain to act on a national level and it acted as the umbrella group for all black women’s organisations.

The exhibition also featured Diane Abbot, the first black woman to become a member of Parliament and Kanya King MBE, founding member of Net Women, founder of the MOBO Awards and patron of the Horniman Museum.

Women in Science, Medicine, Engineering and Technology

We were pleased to see that the successes of women in science, medicine, engineering and technology were highlighred and were very inspired by the following:

Technology: Dame Stephanie ‘Steve’ Shirley who founded the software company the F.I Group in 1962! But, she had to adopt the name “Steve” to help in the male-dominated business world.

Science: Professor Ann Glover, Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Aberdeen and serves as the Chief Scientific Adviser to the President of the European Commission.

Medicine: Professor Dame Sally Davies, qualified doctor and appointed as the first female Chief Medical Officer in the UK and voted as the 6th most powerful woman in the UK in 2013.

Engineering: Professor Dame Ann Dowling, mechanical engineer whose research focuses on combustion, acoustics and vibration. She is currently the Head of Department of Engineering at Cambridge University, where she was the first female professor in 1998 and in 2012 she was appointed non-executive director of the oil company BP.

We had a great time at the Women’s Equality Exhibition which was extremely informative and would like to say a big thank you to Centric Community Projects for inviting us to attend.

The exhibition runs until Friday 21st November. For more information email info@centricprojects.org