- Community Health and Wellbeing Workers listen and assist residents in managing their health in a way that suits their needs.
- In its first year, cancer screening and vaccination uptake were 40% higher for residents visited by an outreach worker.
- The schemes’ origins can be found in Brazil where it has been successful for over a decade.
Pimlico’s Churchill Gardens hosted The Rt Revd and Rt Hon Dame Sarah Mullally DBE Westminster Councillors, faith leaders, GPs and voluntary and community sector organisations to take a closer look at the successful Community Health and Wellbeing Workers (CHWW) programme.
The group completed a walking tour of the areas with the community health workers before meeting to discuss the programme at St Gabriel’s Church of England Primary School. The visit comes after the publication of the Bishop’s Faith, Place and Health report which centres around harnessing the power of faith groups to tackle health inequalities.
Launched in 2022, the programme provides outreach to households in the local area. This allows primary care specialists to build relationships with residents to proactively understand their needs. This includes faith communities who are often able to reach out to vulnerable residents. CHWW workers visit families in their own homes and provide health and wellbeing advice. They can then connect service users with NHS services and other support in the community.
The scheme has been so successful that the NHS have begun expanding to other parts of the borough after first year results show a considerable uptake in health services. For example, cancer screenings and vaccinations, were 40% higher in households that had received at least one visit by the CHWW, compared to those who hadn’t. Additionally, those visited had a 7.3% drop in unscheduled GP visits compared to those not visited, reducing the demand on overstretched services by directing residents to more appropriate sources of support.
The origins of the scheme can be found in Brazil, where Community Health and Wellbeing Workers have been a fundamental part of the country’s health service for more than a decade and have demonstrated dramatic health benefits.
The Churchill Gardens pilot scheme is a unique collaboration between Westminster City Council, Imperial College London, Marven GP Practice in Pimlico, and NHS NWL.
Cllr Nafsika Butler Thalassis, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, Public Health and Voluntary Sector said:
Our community health and wellbeing workers have achieved spectacular results by working consistently with residents within their own communities. This enables residents to navigate services and receive the help they need, aligning with our fairer Westminster pledge to provide high quality health and care for residents.
Having the Bishop of London visit Churchill Gardens to see this pioneering scheme first hand has been fantastic. It points to the important role that faith communities play in supporting our residents and addressing health inequalities in Westminster.”
The Bishop of London, the Rt Revd and Rt Hon Dame Sarah Mullally DBE, said:
Seeing the Churchill Gardens Community Health and Wellbeing programme in person opened my eyes even further to the benefits this approach brings those communities involved, whether that be in increasing prevention opportunities or helping combat loneliness.
If scaled-up nationally here in the UK, as Brazil have, the impact on health outcomes on a national scale could be dramatic.”
Published: 27 April 2023