Creative methods of communicating to inform women’s health research in primary care: workshops from Blackbird Leys and Blackpool
Background
Socioeconomic deprivation is a major cause of poor health outcomes. Women in the UK, on average, live longer than men, but spend longer ill or disabled. Blackbird Leys and Blackpool both have areas which are some of the most deprived in England. Effective, equitable primary care services, such as your GP, pharmacist and dentist, are crucial to support women's health throughout their lives.
Women are less likely to be included in, or considered by, research. Being able to take part in research is essential if care is going to be equitable and effective. Using creative, arts-based ways to learn about research can be very successful in reaching people who might usually not get involved. To make sure that we are doing the best research we can, with the greatest impact on what actually happens in primary care, we need to build on our skills in patient and public involvement (PPI), women’s health, inclusivity and creativity.
There are a wide range of PPI activities taking place in our department involving many people. Undoubtedly, these people bring valuable lived experience to the projects they are involved with, but they tend not to fall into groups considered as under-served by research. Some people find it difficult to take part in traditional activities such as discussion groups or interviews. By using a wider range of PPI methods, we can increase the range of people we are involving and improve the quality of the research we design and carry out.
What will we do?
We will run two workshops for researchers in our department. One workshop will be led by team from Blackpool, the other by a team from Blackbird Leys. Each team will have both an expert in creative methods and an expert in PPI. The workshops will teach our researchers two different creative methods they can use to communicate with patients and the public about their research. They will also teach our researchers about how to do better PPI in women’s health research.
Meet the team
Rebekah Burrow, Polly Kerr, Natalie Kheirkhah, Freddie Longfoot, Rose Higgins, Pradeep Virdee, Siobhean McCarthy-Perham
