The UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) report on inclusive approaches to health protection for inclusion health groups has just been published.
SJOG’s work, led by Ioana Brezeanu, Senior Policy and Research Officer, on capturing experiences from people who have been subject to modern slavery contributed to this report.
UKHSA commissioned 10 voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations, one of which was SJOG, to engage with people with diverse experiences of social exclusion to provide insights for designing and delivering health services that can meet health protection needs. Over 200 people with diverse experiences of social exclusion took part. The purpose of the engagement was to seek views on barriers and facilitators to health protection interventions and participants were encouraged to explore how services could better meet their needs.
Executive summary of the report
Engaging with affected communities is a fundamental component of Inclusion Health approaches. Inclusion Health approaches aim to prevent and address extreme health inequities resulting from severe disadvantage and deep social exclusion.
These health inequalities include high rates of important infections and challenges in accessing vaccination, screening and clinical care.
Working with the broader health system, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has an important role in protecting inclusion health groups from infectious diseases and wider external health protection threats.
The main recommendations that came out of this work were to:
- Build trust first
- Provide integrated, holistic, people-centred approaches
- Build in accessibility to increase engagement and uptake
- Tailor approaches to increase relevance
Read UKHSA’s report at: Insights from people with lived experience to inform inclusive approaches to health protection – GOV.UK
And SJOG’s research paper can be found at: Exploring access to health support and treatment for people subject to modern-day slavery and trafficking