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Some of the benefits women report from attending workshops and
doctors’ sessions. Feedback for this section was collected by
observing workshops, informal discussions with women and community
workers, and
feedback forms completed by staff and women. Monitoring by an
independent evaluator suggests that the Bengali Women’s Health
Project is having significant benefits in terms of increasing
knowledge and encouraging behaviour change. Feedback at group
sessions and from informal interviews suggests that the workshops
are favourably received by Bangladeshi women, and that women feel
they are learning a lot by participating.
At the end of each set of workshops about a topic, we asked women to
fill in a very simple feedback form to tell us what they had learnt.
Community workers also held a group discussion to gain feedback from
women at the end of each set of sessions.
The most common things that women said they had learnt were, in
order of frequency:
Self care strategies to look after themselves
Services available to help
How to teach children about health
What to eat
Sexual infections to look out for
How to make the home safe
Difference between stress, anxiety, depression and madness
Do not ignore invitation for screening
Practical skills for parents
How to give up smoking or paan
How many chemicals in one cigarette
Passive smoking dangers
Benefits of breastfeeding
Infant feeding myths
Practical coping skills
How to use a pedometer
We can change if we want to
When to immunise
New types of contraception
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The women say they are changing some of
their attitudes and behaviours as a result of attending sessions. In
particular, women have spoken about changing their eating habits,
attending screening tests, and trying to exercise more.
The top three topic areas
where women said they felt they would make the most changes were
healthy eating, breast and cervical screening, and self help for
mental health issues such as depression and anxiety.
The most common things that women said
they would change were:
Pass on information to daughters, in
laws, and other family members
Changing eating habits or the foods
eaten
Do not ignore screening appointment
letters
Using the services that are available
to help
More aware of what to look for in terms
of sexual infections
Do more walking, especially using
pedometer
Thinking about ways to educate men, for
example about the dangers of smoking
Reduce or stop paan chewing
Asking for help to attend appointments
First aid skills for children's
accidents
Trying new methods of contraception
Practical steps to change parenting
Practical things to do when feeling low
Stop people smoking inside the home
Talk to someone instead of keeping
things to self
Attending more sessions at the centres
Checking breasts
Women also say they have changed the way they cook
or tried new ideas for healthy eating. However, women are not the
only ones that need to alter their behaviours and expectations, and
this remains an ongoing challenge for the programme.
Depression and isolation are significant issues for
women in Camden’s Bangladeshi community, and the project is helping
to tackle this. The project helps not only by providing information
about mental health topics, but also by giving a regular forum for
women to socialise with others. The social function may be as
important as the topic based content.
Interviews with community workers and doctors
provide more evidence that the programme is having an impact. Staff
say that they see women using the things they have learned in their
day to day lives, and they know messages are being passed on as more
people attend the sessions or come to them for individualised
support.
Another key area where the programme is making an
impact is in one to one consultations with doctors. The Bengali
doctors help to remind women to take their medication as prescribed
by their GP. This has led to improved clinical outcomes for a number
of women, especially those with diabetes and high blood pressure.
Everyone in the programme acknowledges that change
can be a slow and gradual process. Not every woman who attends
workshops or visits a doctor will change her behaviour, and
continual reminders and reinforcement is needed. But there are many
clear examples of where women have made significant changes to their
attitudes and behaviours as a result of attending workshops, and
these successes need to be celebrated and promoted.
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One of the unexpected outcomes of
the project is that the community workers who help translate and
take part in the sessions also learn a lot. These community workers
can then pass on that knowledge in their day to day work with
Bangladeshi families. In the sessions observed by an independent
evaluator, the community workers and doctors took part fully in the
discussions, helping to ask women questions, involve them in
discussions, and make the talks relevant to the Bangladeshi way of
life.
In some cases external organisations that facilitate sessions have
asked community workers to continue working with them. For example,
an organisation that raises awareness about drug use was impressed
by the community workers at one centre and offered to train them and
other Bangladeshi women and community
workers as sessional drug advisors. Up to eight Bangladeshi women
were invited to attend the accredited course, which provides high
quality training and the prospect of increased employability. Women
who attend the sessions also say that one of the key things they
take away from the workshops is knowledge to share
with other family members and friends. Some say they are motivated
to gain more training following workshops.
Camden PCT provided £16,292 to support the project in the year
ending March 2007. The funding equates to £11 for every contact with
a woman or £131 for each workshop run, with all resource costs
included. The individual examples of reducing use of depression
medication, maintaining blood pressure, early identification of
breast lumps, and identifying sexually transmitted infections
outlined above demonstrate that the programme is helping to make
real impacts, for a small amount of money per person.
One of the key success
factors is that the programme has been running for a long time.
Women and their families come to accept the programme and the
messages it provides, because they have ample time to adjust and
build on the lessons learned. Building trust and relationships is
important to the success of the project, and over the next few years
we will be looking to gain more established long term funding to
ensure sustainability.
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Between 5 and 25 women have attended each workshop session, but often it
is the same group of women attending all sessions. This is positive
because it means there is a group committed to attending sessions who
are learning a lot and are able to act as ambassadors for the rest of
the community. However, it also means that new people aren’t always
taking part in workshops. On average, one woman who has not attended
workshops before may attend each new set of sessions.
Attracting new women to the sessions will
be a priority for the Bengali Women’s Health Project over the next year.
To facilitate this the project will:
Develop colourful promotional materials to promote the sessions to
women,
Advertise the sessions to health professionals, Sure Start groups, and
other organisations so they can pass
on details to the women they are working with
Hold a community event to attract a broader range of participants, and
use this event as a way to signpost to workshops and other services. |
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