Bristol Health Partners conference puts lived experience at heart of health research

Bristol Health Partners held its annual Conference on Tuesday 12 October 2021. Like last year, the event was held online due to the ongoing pandemic, with more than 110 academics, clinicians, commissioners and others from organisations across Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset (BNSSG) taking part.

In a two-hour session, Professor David Wynick, Bristol Health Partners Academic Health Science Centre Director, introduced speakers from across the health and care system who discussed how our partnership and our HITs are addressing health inequalities, improving mental wellbeing and supporting the health of children and young people.

The difference that public contributors can make to health and social care was emphasised repeatedly. Looking back at last year’s achievements, Board Chair, Robert Woolley highlighted that our HITs now have more than 70 public contributors embedded in their work.

Health inequalities

Kicking off the health inequalities segment, Adwoa Webber, Head of Clinical Effectiveness at BNSSG Integrated Care System, shared important takeaways around health inequalities: be comfortable with being vulnerable and acknowledge what you don’t know; be curious about what you don’t know; and ask yourself – how would this work for someone who is not like me?

Next, Aisha-Monic Namurach updated attendees on progress to improve HIV services in partnership with African and Caribbean heritage communities in Bristol, as part of the Common Ambition project supported by our Sexual Health Improvement (SHIP) HIT.

Mental health

A moving and thought-provoking segment on mental health followed, which drew on the powerful lived experiences of three of our service users turned HIT public contributors: Primrose Granville from the Kidney Disease HIT, Carolyn Trippick from the Eating Disorders HIT and Darren Bagnall from the Drug and Alcohol HIT.

Thanks to Dr Julian Walker from Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust who co-chaired this segment with Primrose.

Children and young people

Our final segment on improving the health of children and young people was led by Ann James and Dr Jo Williams from Bristol City Council. They presented on the importance of embedding an adversity and trauma-informed approach in health and social care services, and the positive impacts this can have on families.

Watch conference sessions

Watch our YouTube playlist which includes a recording of the conference plus short videos we showed during the health inequalities and mental health segments.

Thanks to our video contributors:

• Evelyn Schiller, Stroke HIT
• Ruth Jackson, Improving Perinatal Mental Health (IMPROVE) HIT
• Sandy Walker, Improving Care in Self-harm (STITCH) HIT
• Sanni Norweg, Eating Disorders HIT
• Sarah Stacey and Kathryn Bissix, Drug and Alcohol HIT