News from the Healthwatch Wandsworth Assembly – 13th October 2022

Report - 20 October 2022

At the Healthwatch Wandsworth Assembly we talked about health inequalities; we heard from people who are working with their own communities and in partnership with the NHS and Wandsworth council to try and improve health in their communities.

Healthwatch Wandsworth holds public events to discuss with local people key issues in health and social care. On Thursday 13th October we held our first of these events in person since the pandemic. 

Our event focused on health inequalities and we heard what health inequalities are prevalent in Wandsworth. We then heard from people working with their communities to try and tackle them.

We will be writing a report soon about what was discussed.

This is who we heard from and what we discussed:

  • Mary Idowu – Deputy Director for Wandsworth Place Partnership, gave us an Introduction to Health Inequalities in Wandsworth.
  • Geetha Maheshwaran, Chair of Wandsworth Community Empowerment Network (WCEN) and Director of the Shree Ghanapathy Temple and Jacob Adams, Programme Manager, WCEN and June Pilgrim-Ndure, Project Manager WCEN told us about their work using an 'Asset Based Community Development Approach to Health Inequalities in Wandsworth'.
  • Lynne Capocciama – Estate Art, told us of her experience of 'Championing the health of Roehampton residents' and the great things she has achieved.
  • Zahra Bihi, Elays Network and Zara Karimi, Live Karma Yoga, told us of their experience as local community organisations working with the local women in the community.
  • Polly Rawlings, Healthy Communities Project Officer, Wandsworth Care Alliance told us about how she is recruiting organisations to develop champion programmes.
  • During the day we all discussed how these projects work with the community to help people improve their health and how they can support people in the community to get something they need and strengthen skills and tools the community has.

Next Steps

We will be writing a report drawing together some themes and experiences people shared with us during discussions on the day and will upload it on to our website soon.

We will use this information to inform our work over the coming year as well as encouraging people in charge of health and social care services to involve local people and community groups in tackling health inequalities.

Download the presentations

Downloads

Below are presentations from the day that we have permission to share. We will add more if we are given permissions.

Mary Idowu – Deputy Director for Wandsworth Place Partnership, gave us an Introduction to Health Inequalities in Wandsworth
Download (PTX 4.21 MB)
Zahra Bihi, Elays Network - organisations working with the local women in the community
Download (PTX 21.74 MB)
and Zara Karimi, Live Karma Yoga - organisations working with the local women in the community
Download (PDF 23.27 MB)