Bristol Health Partners works with hospital charities on new programme of support to benefit thousands in the community

Bristol Health Partners Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC) has joined forces with Bristol’s hospital charities on an innovative programme of support to benefit thousands in the community.

Above & Beyond, Southmead Hospital Charity and Bristol Health Partners have received a grant from NHS Charities Together to support ten different projects across the city. Together, the projects will benefit more than 100,000 people in Bristol and beyond, including those with dementia, inflammatory rheumatic disease and childhood trauma.

Our Health Integration Teams (HITs) will lead eight of the projects, which aim to:

• create a boat-building and rowing programme for people from disadvantaged communities to improve mental health, physical activity and wellbeing
• develop a self-management app for patients newly diagnosed with an inflammatory rheumatic disease
• identify and address the gaps in providing perinatal mental health services for different groups, to ensure that all families who need support can access it
• train community champions to improve understanding of the negative impacts of adversity and trauma on people’s health and wellbeing.
• raise awareness of bladder and bowel health in Inner City and East Bristol, and provide support for women in the Somali community
• deliver and evaluate a community-based arts intervention for people with dementia living in Bristol
• assess the cultural suitability of the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) service, and adapt to encourage more people from disadvantaged communities to use these services
• improve treatment and support, and reduce stigma for people from Bristol’s African and Caribbean heritage communities living with HIV, and their families, and help prevent people acquiring HIV who are at risk.

Alongside these projects, Above & Beyond will establish an at-home monitoring clinic for people with heart conditions, and Southmead Hospital Charity will expand their hospital-based arts programmes for people with chronic illnesses.

Professor David Wynick, Director of Bristol Health Partners AHSC, said:

“Our Health Integration Teams are made up of people from our local hospitals and councils, voluntary and community groups, our CCG, universities, patients, the public and carers.

“We’re looking forward to harnessing their expertise to help even more people across Bristol improve their health and wellbeing, and we would like to thank NHS Charities Together for the opportunity to do so.”

Sarah Pryer, head of philanthropy and partnerships at Above & Beyond, said:

“These projects will have a significant impact on people from all walks of life across Bristol.

“As the NHS charity for Bristol’s central hospitals, we’re looking forward to helping to alleviate some of the pressure our NHS faces by helping people in the community stay physically and mentally well.

“A huge thank you goes to NHS Charities Together for making this work possible.”

Shiona MacPherson, Trusts Manager at Southmead Hospital Charity, said:

“Having already witnessed the impact of our arts programmes for people managing chronic illnesses, we know just how life-changing these projects will be.

“Thanks to NHS Charities Together and our partners across the city, we can now extend these ground-breaking approaches to even more patients. We’re looking forward to seeing the real, meaningful difference the vast array of projects will make to people across Bristol.”