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 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.
