Community Solutions to Health Inequalities: Insights from The Mind The Health Gap Project
This year Greater Govanhill and The Ferret hosted the final Mind The Health Gap event as the year long project comes to a close. We summarised the key insights from the event below.
Health inequalities are a pressing issue in Glasgow, where poverty, social inequality, and structural barriers lead to disparate outcomes when it comes to health. The Mind The Health Gap project, run jointly by Greater Govanhill and The Ferret, aims to address these issues by exploring potential solutions to solving health inequalities.
Read more about the project here: Mind the Health Gap: Exploring Responses to Health Inequalities — Greater Govanhill
During the final event of the project, participants discussed several themes that contribute to health inequalities, including, social inequality and social isolation, food desserts and barriers to good nutrition, drug deaths, environmental factors, quality of housing, cuts to services and more.
They also discussed potential solutions, such as giving people money through living wages, improved investment in public services and infrastructure (particularly in the social sector where a lot of the support is coming from); targeted work in health and social care; green space connectors; housing options such as mid-market rents; and social landlord legislation that is supposed to protect renters.
Main takeaways from discussions on contributions to health inequalities
Lack of resources for and disinvestment in community groups means they can’t always deliver
Cuts to public services meaning more people can’t access the healthcare they need when they need it
Unequal distribution of power leading to ineffective change
Social inequality and environmental factors limit opportunities and negatively impact health
Substance abuse still more widespread in deprived areas
Food desserts and leading to insufficient nutritional intake
Poor and expensive transport options. Access isn’t just about distance, it’s the cost of getting there.
Bureaucracy and lack of trust when it comes to funding
Digitization of access to healthcare is neglecting non-english speakers and older people unfamiliar with the platforms/language
People with money are bypassing structural barriers put in place by the state, whereas organisations and communities without proper funding are stuck and unable to make a significant impact
Bleak outlook with lack of funds and poor services leads to staff burnout and compassion fatigue
Structural discrimination, profiling and unconscious bias leading to divisive and punitive policies that are worsening the disparities
Reactionary band-aid responses by governments are inadequate
More reports are written, but change doesn’t happen. This leads to disillusionment and lack of trust in decision makers
Main takeaways from discussions surrounding potential solutions to health inequalities
More intentional advocacy and scaling efforts to go into communities rather than relying on high-level communication
State responsibility has eroded and communities are filling the gap so engagement in local democracy and meaningful community involvement - including having a say over spending - is important
Less divisive and sensationalist output by media organisations needed to bridge the polarisation between people and communities
Tax the higher earners more to generate more funds
More investment in the social sector, on public services and infrastructure
More greenspace connectors and social prescribing
Access all service through any service (new scot gov initiative)
Housing first model with single points of contact
Housing options like mid-market rents and more social housing
Legislation that protects renters
What were the key insights from last week’s event?
Attendees at the event highlighted the importance of creating opportunities in communities and having an impact through good journalism; including reporting on issues often overlooked in communities and generating awareness.
They emphasised the significance of community journalism and were keen on a community development approach to journalism that involves engaging and involving people in the process rather than imposing it upon them.
One sentiment shared by many people in the Byres Community Hub that afternoon was that the problems being discussed are the same as they were 20 years ago, which paints a slightly bleak outlook.
Despite this, the passion on matters of health and social equality shown during the table discussions counteracts this bleakness. There was a real sense of wanting to take action after all the research, the reporting and the discussions were over.
There is clearly an emotional connection and commitment to the issues, which may explain why people have been working in this field for 20-30 years. But, overall, community groups and media outlets feel distant from power and resources, despite being physically located and having strong connections in the communities they serve.
Participants acknowledged that organisations are running on a shoestring and can’t be expected to do evaluations that others get a lot of money to do. Communities are trying to take back power themselves but don’t have time to wait for those with power and money to catch up.
The participants also discussed the importance of amplifying voices and letting the public know what is happening without scaring them. They noted that state responsibility has eroded over time, with communities filling the gaps. While the state has always been thought of as the default solution, it’s unclear who is actually best placed to address these issues.
The importance of local democracy and meaningful community involvement in decision-making, including having a say over spending, was also raised. But participants also acknowledged that community projects are limited in what they can do when the root of the problem is structural.
They also noted that there is a lot of firefighting going on, which puts pressure on communities. Focusing on what communities can do distracts from what needs to happen further up the chain.
The lack of formal evaluation for community projects is an issue when trying to make the research count. Attendees emphasised it is essential to have access to evidence, in order to replicate or continue work for projects like Mind The Health Gap to have any significant impact.
