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Appendices
The summaries of the individual unmet needs pilots are based on documents and information sent to Health Analytical Services from Greater Glasgow Heath Board and Tayside Health Board and also from the individual project managers. These documents included the SDHI evaluation report of the Tayside project, final reports, interim reports and overheads from conference presentations.
The pilots are presented in the appendices according to which Health Board originally received unmet needs funding.
Across all Health Boards, the majority of pilots focussed on 5 key topics. These were:
Child and Maternal Health
Hard to Reach Groups
Mental Health
Primary Care
Substance Misuse
The topics that each pilot focuses on are highlighted at the start of each pilot summary and coloured as above.
One pilot covered additional topics that could not be categorised. This was the Lomond Volunteer Transport Project.
Appendix A. Coronary Heart Disease - Improving access across the patient journey to CHD services for those living in deprived areas
Topics: Hard to Reach Groups
Background
The unmet needs pilot was developed as part of the Have a Heart Paisley national demonstration project. Have a Heart Paisley was aimed at 45-60 year olds living in Paisley and offered one-to-one guidance and support for clients who wanted to make health behaviour changes. Phase two of the programme, was specifically aimed at those most at risk of developing heart disease and those already diagnosed with heart problems was delivered.
However, it was found that individuals living in the most deprived areas of Paisley faced significant barriers in accessing services. Data showed that for example, there was an extremely low uptake of health check screening from people in the target group who lived in areas of higher deprivation such as the Ferguslie Park area.
The unmet need project was developed with the aim of targeting eligible residents of Ferguslie Park who did not participate in the original Have a Heart Paisley project.
Funding allocation
The pilot was allocated £150,000 for 12 months
Aim(s)
The project had a number of aims. The key aims in relation to the provision of funding for the unmet needs pilot projects were:
To determine whether intensive outreach and support encourages people from deprived communities to access primary prevention services
To determine whether intensive outreach and support encourages uptake of health checks for CHD risk in deprived communities
Methodology
The unmet needs team, which included community development officers and a research support officer, used a variety of community engagement techniques. These included on-street interviewing, attendance at local social activities, post office queues during benefit collection times and opportunistic recruitment on local buses.
Those who were approached were given a leaflet highlighting the service offered and encouraged to come forward.
Key Results
The project set out to screen 133 clients. By May 2008, the number of actual screenings was 247 (159 women and 88 men).
A second screening six months after the initial screening was also implemented and has achieved a 75% success rate.
An unmet needs steering group, which includes academics from the University of Glasgow, are undertaking a quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the operational strand of the unmet needs project.
Conclusions
The project has successfully engaged with those living in the most deprived area of Paisley. The success of its range of engagement initiatives suggests that rather than considering groups as being "hard to engage", flexibility in approaches to engagement appear to be required that have a particular focus on community engagement techniques. Therefore, other agencies need to consider how best to develop engagement techniques that are best suited to their various target populations.
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