The Patient Care Locally Roving Healthcare Units (RHUs) are continuing their successful programme of support, taking vaccination offers and valuable healthcare advice out to underserved cohorts within the East Midlands. One sector to have embraced the benefits of the RHU, are the Gypsy and Traveller communities.
PCL have begun to work closely with Leicestershire Gypsy and Traveller Equalities (GATE), who are the only not for profit organisation working with these communities, providing a wide range of advocacy and support. This partnership has enabled the RHUs to visit a number of Gypsy and Traveller sites in the area.
Carla Barker, support worker for Leicestershire GATE, explained the importance of establishing trust when it comes to outreach work of this nature. “These folk don’t trust easily. Due to how they are often portrayed in the media, they know there is a great deal of conscious and unconscious bias against them. So coming forward with health concerns is not at all easy for them. Because PCL let us set the pace of introductions and they ensured the team was kept consistent, over time the Gypsy and Traveller communities allowed them to come onto site.”
Initially the RHUs attended in order to offer vaccinations against Covid 19, Flu etc. However, as a core principal of the team is to uphold the MECC (Make Every Contact Count) agenda, patients soon began to realise that units were a safe and secure place in which to talk about concerns and ask for healthcare advice. The team were able to provide information, reassurance and sign-posting. The difference it has made has been significant.
Carla continues “These are very private people. Their culture is such that they do not speak easily about certain aspects of their health, particularly sexual and gynaecological health. As a result of the outstanding work done by the RHU team, we know that eleven ladies followed up on booking a cervical smear test. Which is fantastic.”
These communities often face other barriers which prevent them from being proactive about their health concerns. As well as having a lack trust in public services, poor literacy can often be an issue. This causes a sense of intimidation and fear that they will not be able to read instructions or complete forms. As a result, they are often very reluctant to visit a GP surgery and health issues go undiagnosed or unaddressed.
“Word gets around!” Carla explains further, “These communities have very active WhatsApp groups and news of the “health bus” spread fast. This means that sometimes nomadic Travellers have come to a particular site seeking help. So we are able to support more than just those resident.”
During one site visit, the team were able to support a lady who was concerned about the health of her grandson, who was staying with her at the time and was extremely poorly. The RHU team quickly spotted the early signs of Sepsis. As a result they organised for him to receive emergency treatment.
On another occasion, a mother confided worries about her daughter and issues she was having concerning weight and food. The RHU team suspected the young lady may be struggling with Bulimia and were able to sign-post the mother to eating disorder support services as well as providing reassurance.
By working closely with Leicestershire GATE, taking the time to understand the culture and traditions of marginalised communities, PCL has been able to make a significant impact in providing health equity to an often challenging group of patients.
Carla concludes “None of these health issues would have gone away. They would just have presented further down the line – by which time they would be much more serious for the patient and put much more pressure on the system to resolve. Working with the PCL team is really great. Together we are making a real difference to the lives of these communities. So much so, that some of the young women have even been pro-actively asking us about HPV vaccinations! How great is that? So that’s next on our To Do list!”