Expert Patient Programme

for the Turkish and Kurdish Community

In 2015, TCCA was commissioned by Haringey CCG to carry out a comprehensive Health Project with the aim of educating and empowering Turkish and Kurdish speakers with the knowledge and skills required to better access health provision and how to correctly use the services that were provided, with particular attention being paid to A&E, GP services, pharmacists and community groups.

Apart from TCCA and the CCG, main partners within the project included North Middlesex Hospital, Barnet Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust, Whittington Hospital, Glades more Community School, South Haringey Primary, Ali Riza Degirmenci Turkish School, a number of GP Surgeries and Pharmacists.

Through our scoping exercise, we found the consensus was the community facing barriers through language and communication difficulties. In general, they were unaware of all the services available to them and were unsure how to access certain services. A portion of them stated that they were attending A&E due to not being able to gain access to their own GP surgery or the weekend walk-in services. On the other hand health professionals expressed that this service was one that practice staff would refer to first. The focus groups also brought to light that practice reception staff advised patients to attend A&E, when they could not offer urgent or regular appointments.

Following scoping exercise we progressed to the next stage in which we recruited and trained 15 members of the community to 12615710_10208499641030217_5467972308804763169_obecome Health Champions. As part of this important role the Health Champions will support our community by sign posting them to available services and providing further information. Apart from the scoping exercise: the project team have launched a website dedicated to health information, held a highly successful health screening event, produced TV programming for six TV shows, produced a health information pack and is in the process of formulating a strategy for dealing with the Health Care into 2016.