NBCT have been working with the ICAN programme for 2 years to deliver a pilot Ageing Well programme focussed on supporting Asian communities with a view to learning from this. The proposal is to extend this work to support African and African-Caribbean Communities and people living with dementia. We have delivered important outcomes that demonstrate the need to develop specific Black community led programmes that can reach people in Black communities to enable equal access and to ensure that services are linguistically, socially and culturally appropriate.

The Ageing Well Team is funded by the Integrated Care Board (ICB) and is made up of 3 PTEstaff andsupports Asian older people and we have had a very successful year supporting over 88 people forone-to-one support and provided wellbeing support and services for over 150 people. The one-to-one support
is person centred and holistic and has supported people to access the right services, navigate services and also ensure that people’s language and cultural needs are taken into account.

Key challenges this project aims to address are:
– Health inequalities
– Barriers to accessing services and support
– Evidencing needs in black communities
– Offering models of culturally appropriate services
– Advocating for change and transformation
– Influencing system change

The Ageing Well Impact Report demonstrates case studies of people supported and the outcomes achieved for people. For example we supported a 65 year olde woman with dementia and met many challenges in ensuring she received the right health and social care and that her main carers were supported to ensure they knew what support they should be accessing. We were able to source the right residential placement at the end of life and the family were able to ensure they were with her during these difficult days. The feedback from the family was: ‘we could not have supported my wife without the incredible support from your staff and volunteers. We are forever in your debt’.

NBCT has developed an important strategic partnership with Northamptonshire Sport to deliver the Moving Together Forum bringing NBCT Black organisations and other partners together to develop a strategy and action plan to overcome inequalities in access to sports, leisure, and physical wellbeing. This has been an exciting development and created an excellent model of a strategic partnership in overcoming inequalities and addressing unequal access in Northamptonshire. We want to thank Northamptonshire Sport for the very significant efforts and work with NBCT and other partners.

The project builds on previous work and is beneficiary led. Working across Wellingborough and Corbywe aresupporting Asian communities of interest with a focus on “Growing Well and Growing Digitally” beneficiariesasked for digital skills and support and we are trying to provide this in creative ways so that people feel
confident, independent and well. We provided wellbeing activities that included:

• Physical wellbeing – guided walks, weekly online exercise class, swimming for Asian women and dance classes.
• Social Wellbeing – building networks of support, singing network, easing social isolation through social
  events chosen by beneficiaries.
• Mental/emotional wellbeing – by people coming together monthly, walk and talk sessions and ensure events include health eating and food.
• Economic wellbeing – we support people to access benefits advice working with advice partners. We havealso enabled people to access food vouchers.

50 online wellbeing sessions completed including weekly exercise, singing sessions, Emotional WellbeingCafé
34 people supported with digital support
56 people attending from Corby and Wellingborough
6 monthly events completed – 132 different participants have attended.
19 people regularly attending
15 people supported to meet their access and transport needs

The feedback from beneficiaries is very positive and Impact reports demonstrate case studies and account
for the outcomes of group activities. Focus groups identify the areas that beneficiaries are sayingthey want
the project to deliver and we work to respond to this. We have also recruited 5 volunteers to support theproject and some are beneficiaries. One of the volunteers said: ” I love doing this work and I amgetting somuch back for myself, I feel excited and this keeps me really active”.

From January – June 2023, NBCT were commissioned to support the building and driving of the Equalities Enabler Framework for MHLDA Services for equality groups. A key project aim was to consider the need to develop a service model that could, enable equal access to services, overcome barriers to access, provide preventative support, enable people to get the right information and knowledge of services at the right time, enable existing services to become more culturally competent.

NBCT has been involved in delivering health campaigns which started during Covid enabling Black communities to access the right information, increase vaccination, testing and to remain safe. We have supported weight management and diabetes work and reported on this to demonstrate how we can reach Black communities and provide relevant health and other information and support. Recently we have been working with the ICB partners to deliver the Healthy Heart campaign with 7 NBCT partners.

Northamptonshire Black Communities Together is working with the ICS and has been asked to develop an equitable, accessible, culturally appropriate, compassionate and effective dementia pathways to deliver effective care and support for people affected by dementia and their carers from Black (African, African-Caribbean and Asian) communities. We want to ensure that dementia care and support are accessible, culturally sensitive, and equitable for all individuals regardless of their racial or ethnic backgrounds.

The work will involve working with new service developments and ensuring that all the stages of support are accessible and supported fully including:

· Diagnosing Well

· Supporting Well

· Living Well

· Researching Well

· Dying Well

· Preventing Well

Key objectives of the project 

1. A smoother care pathway, one that is streamlined, simpler to navigate and enables
   earlier diagnosis. By getting patients faster access to a memory assessment service,
   they can receive their diagnosis quicker and also eliminate the burden of what can
   be a time-consuming process to secure a GP appointment, which still leads to the
   same assessment. Bypassing primary care in such instances can remove an
   unnecessary element of the pathway.
2. How can Dementia pathways be enhanced to support patients, families, and carers
   once a diagnosis has been made.
3. Additional care should be directed to these groups so that they feel empowered
   and assisted to live well with dementia.