By Aalia Khan
Local charity, Womenzone hosted a Big Health Event in Bradford for health professionals and community groups on Wednesday 18th March.
The event focused on bringing health professionals together to make people aware of the services that are available to them and how they can be used effectively. It was a mixed event and involved speakers from CCG, Better Start, Bradford University and City of Sanctuary who presented their work on what is going on to better the health provisions in Bradford.
CCG project coordinator at Womenzone Nadia Naim said “We’ve been funded by CCG to look at self care particularly with BME women – so that’s Pakistani, Bengali, India and Eastern European because we are a diverse community. What we’ve found is that a lot of BME women who are isolated, they don’t have that ability to get into mainstream health services; so if they are suffering with depression or they are physically unfit they don’t know what to do. Our focus is self-care; we are getting women to think about their health through self-care by being innovative. One of the activities we’ve had at the health event is getting people to post messages on mugs. We have a range of organisations here and we are bringing them together because we want to be more coordinated in Bradford. We want people to think about their health and how we can improve health in Bradford.”
Diana Bird from Shipley College has been working on a project called Mother’s Tongue which is about supporting women in accessing maternity services, helping women who don’t speak English to develop their communication skills so they can interact meaningfully with their midwife and also so that they can learn about what the medical services can offer in the UK. Bird said “I think it is amazing that so many people have turned out, it’s great to know that there are so many people who are working towards a common goal and recognise what the issues are, not just recognising them but also having solutions and ideas about how we can move that forward. “
Gwyneth Balson Chair of the Board of Trustees at the centre said “Today’s event involves a diversity of health professionals who have come together to share experiences in terms of the work that they do, and for us to network which has been good.”
