January 2025
The Good Shepherd is a community organisation based in Wolverhampton that supports people experiencing homelessness. Their work is centred around ending homelessness, supporting recovery and creating pathways out of poverty.
We recently visited the Good Shepherd Ministry (GSM) group after liaising with the Health and Wellbeing Advisor about our Women’s Health Survey. We wanted to have a conversation around women’s health and take the opportunity to speak to local women about what matters most to them. This included insights on heavy periods, the menopause, assisted conception, mental health and general wellbeing.
During our visit, we were told that women across Wolverhampton felt the main issue was that the menopause wasn’t spoken about enough and that they felt isolated, finding it hard to manage their emotions. One woman spoke to us about a time when a male colleague at work labelled her as “having a moment” whilst she was having a hot flush, and how this made her feel vulnerable.
The women in the room felt that they had to “mask” their emotions during the menopause and when dealing with heavy periods, as they feel that some people feel as though they just have to get on with it.
We also heard that women would feel more at ease if they could always request a female GP when attending their GP practice for menopause-related issues. They suggested that it would encourage more women to seek support, both physically and mentally.
After visiting The Good Shepherd and having conversations around women’s healthcare, we will use the insights gathered to help us shape our women’s health hubs work across Wolverhampton, and an invite extended to join our Women’s Health Champions Group to continue shaping the programme and plans.
The Sikh Gurdwara in Sedgley supports the local community, seeing over 1,000 people each week. They provide hot meals and create support networks to help with a wide range of issues.
As part of our Women’s Health Survey, we visited their women’s group so they could share their experiences in accessing healthcare across the Black Country.
During our conversations, access to primary care seemed to be the biggest barrier and makes the attendees feel as though their health is not a priority.
For patients who speak different languages we heard that they find it difficult calling for an appointment and also cannot use the online booking systems if they are only in English. If they had translation services doing this, they would find this beneficial.
Some women in the group have been to their GP and have had translated services before, but this isn’t promoted enough. We also spoke to one lady who asked her neighbour to go to an appointment with her to translate, which isn’t entirely confidential for her – but “needs must” she said.
There was also a clear preference for female GPs for women’s health appointments with the ladies telling us that it makes them feel more at ease and can be more open and honest about women’s health issues. However, they expressed that there aren’t enough female GPs available in practices across the Black Country.
Our Involvement Team will include the feedback during this session for women’s health and use the insights gathered to help us shape our women’s health hubs work across Wolverhampton and send an extended invite for them to join our Women’s Health Champions Group to continue shaping the programme and plans for women’s health in Wolverhampton.
We will also use the insight to help support our future translation service going forward.
Places of Welcome is a national initiative for people to come together in a safe, warm environment. We recently attended a session at St Martins Church which was attended by local people of different ages and ethnicities.
During our community conversation, the common theme was how cancer has affected people’s lives.
We welcomed a conversation with a 50-year-old man who took part in a regular UK clinical trial and had his bloods taken. He was shocked to find through this trial he had prostate cancer, even with experiencing no symptoms and encourages everyone to take part if they get the opportunity. He also explained that there should be a yearly prostate check with GPs as some may not know they have it – just like himself. He had to have treatment for the Cancer and now has regular checkups.
Throughout the conversations we spoke to women about their health and how they access NHS services. One lady spoke about her heavy bleeding and how this had affected her life. She has had to access a lot of services over the years due to having a hysterectomy and breast cancer.
Our Involvement Team will share the women’s health stories with Walsall Together to inform our future work on Women’s health hubs. The cancer stories will be shared with the Cancer Team at the ICB for further promotion.
We joined Home Instead for ‘National Brew Day’ and had a chatter with a group of women over 60 to gain an insight into women’s health.
Home Instead support local people live in their own homes for as long as possible supporting them with general needs, walking aids, hearing aids, and catheters – as well as helping keep their home tidy.
A common theme was that the ladies were worried about the increasing pressure on GP’s and the difficulty they are experiencing in accessing face-to-face appointments. We heard that some feel anxious and stressed around ringing the GP for an appointment as you have to wait in a long queue and ring at certain parts of the day.
It was mentioned that those who are hard of hearing, having an appointment over the phone may mean that the GP doesn’t get a full understanding of what is wrong.
A 64-year-old also told us she has been waiting for a gynaecology appointment. She had been experiencing issues with a prolapse and have been experiencing discomfort for over 12 months whilst waiting any appointment. She had an appointment that day of the visit to discuss her health problems.
After our conversation, we shared concerns with the Primary Care Commissioning Manager, Time2Talk and the PALS Team at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, as well as insight towards our Women’s health hub work.
As part of our work to seek local views on women’s health, we arranged a visit to The What? Centre in Dudley to speak to attendees about a range of health topics, including heavy menstrual bleeding, the menopause, assisted conception (treatment for infertility), mental health and general wellbeing.
The What? Centre provides holistic mental health and wellbeing support appointments to all young people in the Dudley Borough aged between 9 and 25 years old. The services can be offered from two sites in Dudley and Stourbridge, as well as through remote options, and it can be accessed via self-referral or through a referral by a professional or family member. They also run adult provision for anyone over the ages of 18 via beehive Dudley, which provides support to people living with HIV and the LGBTQ+ community.
When talking to the group about assisted conception and the policies in place around this, it was a shared opinion that people shouldn’t have their options taken away because of who they are. The group added that restricting IVF to only heterosexual couples is upsetting, unfair and “denying a large number of people the opportunity to have the life they want”. A lot of the group were surprised that this was even the case, and they expressed that policies should be reviewed regularly and with public/user involvement.
When discussing women’s health, one attendee spoke about her experience with heavy menstrual bleeding, explaining that it causes her to be bed bound. She said that over-the-counter medication doesn’t help to manage her pain, and she hasn’t been offered any other contraceptive methods to help manage the condition. She has a family history of endometriosis and cervical cancer, so she wants to be taken more seriously. It was a shared opinion that attendees would prefer female GPs for these issues as they understand, and they would like more resources to be made available to them.
Three attendees shared their experiences around inclusivity. A trans male shared his experience of accessing women’s healthcare at his GP practice, as he was looking to stop his periods via the contraceptive patch. He described his experience as awkward and said he ended up going online for more information following his appointment. He also shared that the practice still hasn’t changed his pronouns on his medical records, which he finds embarrassing. Two non-binary attendees also shared their experiences of accessing primary care, explaining that they didn’t feel listened to by their GPs.
We also heard about the struggles currently faced around getting appointments at Brook for their sexual health and wellbeing services, with people having to wait up to three hours for a walk-in appointment. Not everyone is aware that these services are available in just one place now for Dudley, so people are still going to The What? Centre for information, advice and guidance.
This was a very insightful discussion, and we would like to thank the attendees for being so open with their experiences and feedback. These insights will be used to support our women’s health and assisted conception work for the Black Country.
As part of our Community Conversations, we recently visited a Bloxwich Academy, a primary school in Walsall.
We spoke with a teacher of primary school children with special educational needs which gave us an insight into the area of the school, explaining it has high levels diversity.
The number of pupils at their school in Bloxwich with English as a second language (EAL) has been steadily growing over the years. There is a range of languages spoken – making teaching particularly difficult – including Punjabi, Gujarati, Italian, Romanian and Polish.
Bloxwich Academy is currently looking into training or recruiting specialist teachers for students with EAL to better address the growing need. At their school, around 22 per cent of students speak English as their second language.
With upcoming involvement around the translation service, it was useful to know that English is a second language to many children in the school and how this will inform services going forward.
February 2025
A pop-up cancer conversation took place in Wolverhampton to mark World Cancer Day (Tuesday 4 February) and to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of cancer.
The pop-up shop was attended by 250 people who had the opportunity to meet with a range of clinicians about how to check for symptoms of cancer, screening programmes and support services available.
During our conversations, some attendees shared their experiences of when they’ve received great support from their GP and accessing gynaecology services in Wolverhampton.
We heard a story from a lady who was worried symptoms she had may have been cancer. After her check-up, she found that they were menopausal symptoms and is now having regular GP appointments and feels “human again”. She encourages other people to get checked out and attend screening if things don’t feel “the norm”.
The event also highlighted the important role of community cancer champions who attend a training programme to get the knowledge and confidence to have conversations in their community about cancer prevention, myth busting and early detection.
We have over 560 cancer champions and it continues to grow, becoming part of a wider network with quarterly forums and regular updates and support from the Cancer Team at Black Country ICB.
To become a cancer champion, please email Lesley Thorpe, Specialist Commissioner for Black Country ICB: lesley.
Information around women’s health will be shared with our Involvement Team who are currently working on a women’s health project.
The Iris Project offers support services for women who are being – or are at risk of being – sexually exploited and involved in sex work across Wolverhampton.
Their team conducts evening outreach work twice a week distributing condoms, food, clothing and other essentials across the city.
To support ongoing work around women’s health across the Black Country, we visited them to welcome their views.
Amongst our conversations, we touched upon support for women leaving prison, accessing sexual health services and general women’s health.
The women’s probation service spoke to us about the issues they have getting health care arrangements in place for when ladies are leaving prison, made more difficult by them often not knowing where they will be living until very short notice.
This often leads to health complications, difficulties in getting medication, doctor’s appointments and continuity of care.
We heard that sex workers prefer it when Embrace (a local sexual health service) offers drop-in clinics rather than booking appointments.
On behalf of Embrace, Changing Lives gave out 5,500 condoms last year – enabling safer sex across the city. However, due to the limit of eight free condoms per visit, there is an increase in unprotected sex and contracting sexual diseases.
When it comes to money, we heard, “drugs win over condoms”, as addictions take priority over safe sex. They are also unlikely to attend cervical screening appointments or sexual health clinics.
We heard stories from women around their experiences of heavy menstrual bleeding, having to present at the GP several times and being turned away without treatment.
Similarly, we heard from women living with endometriosis often being undiagnosed and “batted away” causing lengthy delays to treatment and living in pain with symptoms.
The group spoke about relevancy of health campaigns, the recent, “I test” public health campaign was mentioned.
We heard that to be relevant and reach their target audience at Changing Lives, it needs to be a woman on adverts/posters such as these, to appear “sex worker friendly”.
Discussions during this conversation will help support our women’s health campaign. We have also invited the attendees to be part of our Women’s Health Champions Reference Group.
We have also reached out to both Embrace and City of Wolverhampton Council Public Health Team regarding the campaign feedback and they are going to work closely on sexual health campaigns to feature more women.
Embrace is also looking into making the process of giving out condoms simpler in future, and since our conversation Changing Lives has had news that they no longer need to monitor condom usage and will make the process of handing out the condoms donated by Embrace much easier.
As part of our ongoing conversations around women’s health, we recently attended the University of Wolverhampton to speak to their wellbeing champions. They are dedicated student volunteers, promoting health and wellbeing amongst their peers.
These initiatives include creating community groups, mental health workshops, outdoor exercise encouragement, and tips for feeling good.
We spoke to a mother who previously experienced an ectopic pregnancy and wanted to share her lived experiences to help improve future services.
An ectopic pregnancy is when a fertilised egg implants itself outside of the womb, usually in one of the fallopian tubes.
She expressed the obstacles she had to encounter trying to access care through a variety of healthcare services and believed her concerns were not being taken seriously until she visited the maternity unit herself.
After being seen and having to undergo major surgery – what she initially thought was a miscarriage was her fallopian tube rupturing.
She is thankful she was seen at the time she was by an excellent surgeon and was able to go on to have children afterwards.
During our conversation, she expressed the importance of awareness of ectopic pregnancies for all healthcare professionals, from GP staff to A&E, as only specialised staff understood her situation.
She believes that it would be beneficial for expectant mothers to have more information around post-partum care across the Black Country and more talks about this during antenatal appointments.
Discussions during this conversation will help support our women’s health campaign. We have also invited the attendees to be part of our Women’s Health Champions Reference Group. We have also passed this feedback onto the gynaecology department.
We recently visited Walsall Digital Skills Hub which is run by The Mercian Trust and funded by the UK Government and Walsall Council providing access and opportunities for students, young people and adults to learn digital skills.
The two schools opposite the Hub use the facilities for digital lessons. This is the Studio School for 14–19-year-olds and the Ladder School for pupils who need additional support as an alternative to mainstream education.
During our conversation, we touched upon how the NHS is using digital technology to help healthcare professionals communicate better and enable people to access the care they need quickly and easily.
We discussed the possibility of holding an ‘NHS App digital day’ hosted by staff from the ICBs Digital Team. The students would then become NHS ambassadors to educate family and friends about using the NHS App.
The Studio School opposite is for students studying photography, filming and dance. The NHS Involvement Specialist spoke about how the Black Country ICB uses filming and photography in the communications and involvement teams’ activities.
This also includes filming for Feet on the Street which are videos produced for the ICB’s Board of Directors. After this, a link was sent to Feet on the Street You Tube videos to share with students for learning.
The Fibromyalgia ME and Long Covid Group are part of a national organisation, supporting people living with both disorders to create a safe environment to speak up about their experiences.
Fibromyalgia, also called Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS), is a long-term condition that causes pain all over the body. ME, also called chronic fatigue syndrome, is a long-term condition that can affect different parts of the body causing extreme tiredness. There were also ladies at the group who was still suffering from symptoms of long-covid such as breathing issues.
The group is based in Walsall Town Centre and have over 200 members meeting monthly alternating between daytime and evening meetings championing change and raising further awareness.
Concerns were expressed during our conversations around not enough people including healthcare professionals not knowing about how this can affect a person both mentally and physically.
One lady expressed her concerns that some funding for clinics have been cut and are worried for their future as it took three years to get a diagnosis as some GPs “do not understand the disease and dismiss it.”
People living with severe ME and fibromyalgia suffer from light and noise sensitivity and are either housebound or bedbound.
Another person told us that they visited a local hospital which took up a lot of their energy and they were tired by the time they arrived. They asked for a quiet space whilst waiting for their appointment and were told they didn’t have a space for them.
The group told us about self-care groups hosted by Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust focussing on both ME and fibromyalgia, however they cannot get enough people to attend the course.
This is because of the course length and the people getting tired too quickly due to their conditions. They have raised this issue with the Walsall Self-care Coordinator.
The ICB Involvement Team expressed the importance of raising their issues to our Time2Talk Team. They plan to attend the session in April to gain further insight and update them on their findings.
