Addressing health inequalities through engagement with people and communities

Summary

Engage diverse groups to ensure marginalised voices are heard and included in addressing health inequalities.

Link to health inequalities

Working with a diverse range of people who experience health and care inequalities helps bring in a wider range of experiences and perspectives, ensures that marginalised voices are heard, and leads to more effective insights.

Activities, skills and resources

Emerging

• Work with small groups of patients, service users and community representatives who have volunteered and are already engaged with the system.
• Facilitate simple engagement activities.

Developing

• Commit to bringing in new voices beyond established groups of patients, service users and community representatives.
• Work with community partners and trusted community leaders to connect with under-served communities.
• Use culturally sensitive approaches to engage populations that have historically been overlooked.
• Recognise that initial relationships with under-served groups may take time to establish due to a lack of previous engagement.

Maturing

• Collaborate with communities to identify barriers to engagement.
• Allocate resources to reduce engagement barriers.
• Address issues such as time/cost constraints, trust deficits, and consultation fatigue.
• Avoid over-reliance on established groups.

Thriving

• Work with partners and communities to map and build on existing skills and networks to bring in new and diverse voices.
• Customise engagement methods based on project needs.