Smita Grant is the Service Manager for NHS Lothian’s Minority Ethnic Health Inclusion Service, a service that has been serving the Lothians for over twenty years. She has written the following article about what NHS Lothian has done and continues to do to communicate with diverse minority ethnic groups and other marginalised groups, particularly as this reached a new level of importance during the COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID-19 changed all aspects of our lives. It also exposed many hidden inequalities as we saw that it impacted disproportionately on BME communities.
There was ample evidence of the higher risk for COVID and death for BME communities and they had very little accessible information. In order to keep everyone safe, NHS Lothian communicated vital health information to its whole population.
We were in a good position to reach out to the BME population as our Minority Ethnic Health Inclusion Service (MEHIS) had built good partnerships and networks with the third sector, as well as minority, refugee, asylum seeker and faith communities over many years.
During lockdown, BME individuals and groups contacted MEHIS for advice information and support to access services.
When GP practices locked down, MEHIS prepared Easy Read posters in various community languages on how to access GP services.
As COVID advanced, information on understanding self-isolation and support was required. MEHIS staff engaged with individuals, community and faith groups to understand the barriers.
A Community Messaging sub-group chaired by Chris Bruce (Lead on Equality and Human Rights) with representation from Public Health, Health Protection Team, HSCPs, Interpretation & Translation Service, MEHIS and other community representatives prepared the messages.
As audio-visual information is more accessible for people with low literacy and low English proficiency and previous feedback from BME individuals and community leaders showed that videos in their own language were more effective and much appreciated, trusted BME staff and volunteers presented the video messages in nine languages.
When the Covid-19 Vaccination Programme started, there was much misinformation and disinformation on social media from the UK and people’s home countries and the evidence showed higher levels of vaccine hesitancy and lower levels of vaccine uptake in BME communities.
It was important to provide clear, accessible information from a trusted source so people could make an informed choice. The Community Messaging Group prepared a message addressing vaccine hesitancy which included the endorsement of COVID vaccines from faith leaders. BME staff and volunteers presented the video message in eleven languages.
Even excellent information resources are useless unless they reach the target audience. The partnership and networks that have been built up with the third sector and minority ethnic and faith groups over many years were instrumental in forwarding the video links via social media, not only in Lothian but also nationally and internationally.
To promote vaccine uptake, MEHIS staff successfully organised vaccination clinics at mosques and other religious centres to encourage people who find it difficult to attend mainstream venues.
There were also several COVID Q&A sessions for different ethnic groups in partnership with Health Protection Consultants. Many people who had refused the vaccine were vaccinated after their concerns were addressed.
Videos are currently being produced to promote both symptomatic and asymptomatic testing and LFD and PCR Test demonstrations in sixteen languages.
All the video resources can be seen here:
COVID Vaccination in English, Arabic, Mandarin, Cantonese, Romanian, English 2, BSL, Polish, Bengali, Urdu, Swahili https://www.nhslothian.scot/Coronavirus/Vaccine/Pages/VaccineInformationInDifferentLanguages.aspx
Understanding Self Isolation and Support in Arabic, Urdu, Cantonese, Bengali, Mandarin, Polish, Kurdish, English, BSL https://www.nhslothian.scot/Coronavirus/Pages/Where-To-Get-Help.aspx and https://www.nhslothian.scot/Coronavirus/Pages/I-have-Covid-19-symptoms—How-do-I-get-a-test.aspx
For the following videos:
https://vimeo.com/showcase/8653268
Password: MEHIS
LFD Test Demonstration:
PCR Test Demonstration:
Asymptomatic Testing:
What is a PCR Test?
