Health and wellbeing in Bedfordshire

This report identifies the experiences, perceptions and emotions in respect of lived experiences regarding: * Primary Care experience of having an NHS Health Check; * Experience of lifestyle support services; * Areas where patients/carers found information/support was helpful/unhelpful; * Gaps in current services that would have been useful to access. Horizon Health Commissioning Ltd (HHC) has commissioned a Health and Wellbeing team to deliver health and wellbeing education and NHS Health checks to vulnerable and hard-to-reach communities within North Bedfordshire. Five groups of the population in North Bedfordshire were consulted using focus groups, thesse groups were. * Sri Guru Ravidass community Group: 19 participants (10 female, 9 male) * Bangladeshi womens' group: 15 participants * Polish Group: 15 participants (7 female, 8 male) * Sikh womens' community Group: 15 participants * Bedford Carers group: 7 participants (5 female, 2 male) 12 participants had had a health check with the Health and Wellbeing team. The overall findings were largely positive regarding access to physical health and wellbeing checks by the health and wellbeing team. The overwhelming response indicated that staff were approachable, kind, knowledgeable and informative. Access to lifestyle support services was limited, often due to cultural and social issues rather than lack of knowlege or availability. Many examples of how communication could be improved for all groups were identified and the importance of integration of all health and social care services to represent a client focussed approach were identified. Support for mental health and wellbeing appeared to be the area where current gaps in service could, if resolved, significantly enhance the health and wellbeing of both service users' families and carers.