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The East Midlands Academic Health Science Network (EMAHSN) has awarded 15 community and voluntary groups a funding boost of £2,000 each to support pivotal work that involves patients and the public in healthcare and research.
The annual awards, which are now in their seventh year, began as the EMAHSN recognised many groups operate on an entirely voluntary basis and find it hard to cover basic costs such as travel and members’ out-of-pocket expenses. The funding is aimed at health, social care, charities, voluntary organisations, and groups that want to involve the public in research and health care services. This could include those who focus on prevention, promotion or transformation and improvement. The fund particularly welcomes applications that demonstrate the involvement of seldom heard and underserved communities.
Following the application and selection process, the 2022 winners cover instrumental areas such as mental health, sickle cell and thalassaemia, learning disabilities and autism, food poverty, high blood pressure and diabetes, health inequalities, prostate cancer in African Caribbean men and maternity and neonatal support for those from ethnic minority groups. Plus, research involvement to give women from diverse backgrounds a voice when setting research priorities related to maternity services in deprived areas and BAME communities.
This year the awards were in memory of Veronica Price-Job, who served as EMAHSN Senate Co-Chair and was passionate about addressing health inequalities and the role of social care. To honour this, the awards had a special focus on groups that address health inequalities and can contribute to NHS Core20PLUS5 priorities. The funds were also increased from previous years from £1,000 to £2,000 per group.
A family member of Veronica Price-Job said: “It’s amazing that 15 organisations have received funding - all of whom, will make a difference in the lives of the people in the communities in which they operate. As a family, we are honoured and appreciative of the fact that in Veronica’s name, these organisations will make a difference in the areas of health that Veronica was very passionate about.”
Annette Kenningham, GP, Communities Food and Wellbeing Hub Leicester Charity said: “This funding will make a huge difference to our public involvement work. Over the Covid period, several communities have been disproportionately affected - particularly low-income communities living in food poverty including Asian, African, African-Caribbean and food-poverty communities when accessing services and support. We know that there has been low uptake of preventative health services and we want to listen to guest-users on their preferred ways to affect change through health food provision that is acceptable.”
Independent Chair of EMAHSN, Martin Hindle said: “Being part of the selection panel for these awards and seeing the range of applications from these groups is so inspiring. There is such a breadth of winners this year all doing fantastic work. All are passionate about patient and public involvement, ensuring the voices of the communities they support are reflected in local health and care services.
“This year was a special year in memory of Veronica Price-Job who we sadly lost last year, she was incredibly passionate about addressing health inequalities in the health and social care sector and it’s great to see this range reflected in the selected groups. I’d like to thank all those who took the time to submit such excellent applications and I look forward to hearing the successful group's progress over the following year.”
Further information, including quotes from the winners, can be found on EMAHSN’s dedicated webpage: www.healthinnovation-em.org.uk/publicinvolvementfund