NICS Wellbeing CIC is a community company, committed to supporting people through mental health challenges, neurodivergence, and addiction recovery. Their approach empowers people to live at their best.  

Overtime, their community projects have flourished as they offer a variety of initiatives such as parent support groups for neurodivergent children, a lunch and learn wellbeing series, and the ‘Beyond the Book’ programme.

In addition to this, they provide a range of commercial services for organisations, such as:

• Workplace strategy coaching
• Co-coaching
• Providing listening spaces
• Training and workshops
• Reflective practice facilitation for teams in complex and caring roles.

Through our conversations, we met a member of the group who shared her desire to build more relationships with other stakeholders in Wolverhampton. Previously, we introduced the group to our primary care ambassador programme, and they continue to still be apart of this.

Following the community conversation, we introduced members of the group to the Solace Community, Healthwatch, P3 Charity, and the Communities Engagement and VCS Lead at City of Wolverhampton Council, to see how they can work and collaborate with one another to support our residents across Wolverhampton. 

We also introduced them to a colleague at Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust who helps run a co-production network.

Walsall Disability Hub, run by Midland Mencap, works to support people with learning disabilities and physical disabilities. Groups are available every day of the week, with craft sessions on different days of the week. On the day we visited to talk to attendees and staff about the upcoming complex care event on 1 July, the group was tie-dying and screen printing. 

On meeting the two members of staff that run the groups, we spoke to them about the complex care event, which would be taking place at Walsall Town Hall. We invited them to attend, as it would be an opportunity to discuss learning disability and complex care, and how best to support those needs to people in Walsall. Unfortunately, they were unable to attend, but they gave us helpful feedback on the location and how it may be daunting for those with disabilities or carers to attend to speak to professionals. 

We then spoke to the group about their experiences of caring and accessing health and care services, which opened a number of discussions around primary care.     

One attendee shared that her son has a learning disability and gets anxious when he knows he has a GP appointment, explaining that he doesn’t like injections and has had difficult experiences at his GP and dental surgery in the past. A carer in attendance said they felt that once a GP knows a patient has a disability, they will only talk to the carer and will stop including the patient in conversations about their care. A woman in her 50s told us that she lives with her parents and said that she doesn’t mind attending her GP surgery, as she knows that she has to have her flu and COVID-19 vaccinations. 

We also heard some positive stories, including one story from an attendee who was telling us about her brother who has low level support autism. He has a masters degree in finance and works in a bank, and he was able to travel to London for the day on his own to visit one of the branches. She said his place of work has been fantastic and supports his autism through flexible working. Another woman shared that her son, who has a learning disability, loves to sing and that she goes to a choir group with him. She said that she used to be a primary school teacher and that she has been approached to speak to a mother of a five-year-old who has been recently diagnosed with ADHD and who has a communication age of 18 months. She asked if we knew of any support groups for young children that she could recommend, so we suggested that she contact Autism West Midlands for advice on local support. 

This conversation has given us valuable insights into the experiences of carers and those living with learning disabilities and physical disabilities. The feedback has been shared to leads of Walsall Place for our complex care project. The feedback was considered for the event on 1 July, and we will plan future discussions with groups at locations where they feel more comfortable to attend. 

The African Caribbean Community Initiative (ACCI) work with the community to support people from black, African and Caribbean backgrounds to improve their mental health and emotional wellbeing.

The ACCI opened its doors to not just showcase their services, but to share stories, experiences and their vision for improved mental health support in different cultures.

During our visit to ACCI centre, we spoke to a gentleman who is black Caribbean and shared his mental health journey with remarkable honesty and strength.

After spending over 20 years in and out of Penn Hospital, trapped in a cycle or crisis, everything changed when he found ACCI. For the past two years he has been happier, stable and remained out of hospital. He acknowledged the consistent and compassionate support he receives from the team and his support worker. He finds peace in the small things now, such as visiting the ACCI farm, tending to the allotment and going on group walks.

He simply said: “Without ACCI and their compassion, I believe I wouldn’t still be here today.” His story is a reminder of the life-saving impact of culturally responsive, community-led care we have across the Black Country and beyond.

Several members of staff spoke of the challenges black people with ill mental health face in the UK. Statistics show black people have the lowest mental health treatment rates of any ethnic group (6 per cent). ACCI’s educational efforts display a call to action to not just “check yourself” but to reflect deeply on who is being served, who is being failed, and what community-led, culturally informed care can do to close that gap.

Throughout our conversations, we have spoken about interpretation in healthcare, particularly in primary care. They explained the difficulty in finding someone who speaks the right language due to the vast range of African languages and dialects within these, making it very difficult to communicate. ACCI offer British Standards Online (BSOL), but it is difficult to learn when people have poor mental health and other things to focus on.

This was an insightful discussion with members of ACCI and after the conversations we were able to share insights around interpretation with the expert advisory group and a member of our Involvement Team has arranged their next visit to continue growing our relationships.

In June, we went to speak to the leader of the Girl Guiding Group in Bloxwich, Walsall, to talk about the health and lifestyle experiences of young girls in the local area. The leader has been involved with the group for over 30 years, and previously worked with domestic abuse victims for Walsall Council. 

When talking to us about the group, which has an age range of 10-14, the leader spoke to us about how they have targeted and discussed health-related subjects during their weekly sessions. 

She explained that personal hygiene has been a big topic, as they had experienced challenges with a 12-year-old attendee who was struggling to wash herself. This caused comments from other attendees in the group, so the leader organised a session on hair care and personal hygiene.  

She added that the group struggled with other basic skills, such as cooking, lighting a match or sewing. For one of their badges, the group has now learnt how to sew and knit, with the leader purchasing small sewing kits for when the girls passed so that they can continue to develop their skills. She shared that some of the parents weren’t comfortable with their children learning to cook, but they have been able to do a session on lighting matches outside and how to safely put out a fire. 

She also briefly explained how relationships have impacted the mental health and confidence of young girls who attend her group, sharing that she had to support a 12-year-old attendee who had recently gone through a break-up.  

We spoke to the leader about how Black Country Integrated Care Board (ICB) and Walsall Together can support them with their sessions. We mentioned that Black Country ICB has cancer champions that can come and speak to the group about cancer awareness, and a digital team that can provide information on the NHS App, which can be downloaded and utilised by anyone over the age of 13 who is registered with a GP surgery in England. We will continue to liaise with the leader as a contact for any future pieces of work that involves young people or other projects through partnership working. 

Bilston Wellbeing Hub has been established for six months – created for the local Jamaican community – encouraging reminiscence and belonging.

A member of our Involvement Team recently visited the Hub to speak to the members and were warmly welcomed into a building which highly represented Jamaican culture.

Amongst our conversations, health, prevention and access to primary care were key topics which gave us an insight into how the Jamaican community perceive the healthcare system.

We spoke with a lady who’s elderly father has diabetes and having seen his GP, he was urged to go to the hospital for a scan. After waiting for hours, he explained the clear lack of communication between GP and hospital staff and was unable to receive a scan until the next day. This led to a conversation around perception and communication styles, with the daughter explaining that there is a fear of complaining or being worried to speak up in frustrating circumstances in many Jamaican families due to being perceived as aggressive.

Reflecting on primary care access, a member of the group spoke about her recent experience when trying to book a GP appointment due to having a persistent chest infection. She was upset and confused when she was given an appointment for two weeks’ time and was told to try and access an earlier appointment online, in which she cannot do. She explained the importance of allowing people to still call to book an appointment. This is still happening in most practices; however, the General Practice Model introduces various different ways of accessing healthcare, with online being one of them. After this conversation, we encouraged the lady to visit her pharmacy by utilising the Pharmacy First initiative to get healthcare advice. She was going to her local pharmacy that afternoon.  

A member of the Involvement Team also reached out to the Primary Care Team at NHS Black Country ICB, in which they will investigate accessing appointments at that specific branch within Wolverhampton.

We also shared the details of the gentleman not receiving the care he wishes with the complaints team at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust.