We’re looking back on the first year of our Community Health and Wellbeing Worker (CHWW) project.
Our CHWWs are now regularly visiting hundreds of households in south Westminster to support them with a variety of needs. We can help with advice, signposting and referrals for a wide range of issues. Our early reports show we’re already making a difference to the health and wellbeing of local residents.
What are Community Health and Wellbeing Workers?
The CHWW model started in Brazil over 30 years ago, where it is now the delivery model for primary care, with over 70% of the population now having a CHWW.
In Westminster, CHWWs have been assigned to households in priority areas, and will contact the residents on a regular basis, to build trust, and assess their health, social and wellbeing needs. The CHWWs will provide advice, as well as signposting and referrals to appropriate services to address these needs.
The aim is to take a preventative approach to healthcare by promoting healthy living, and identifying and resolving a range of issues before they become serious health problems.
Many health issues can be alleviated or prevented by simple lifestyle changes, especially if people are made aware of the risk factors and early warning signs they need to look out for. Many other people may already know what they should be doing for their health, but need a nudge in the right direction from someone they trust. This is why we believe CHWWs can play a vital role in improving health and wellbeing in our communities.
People’s health and wellbeing is also affected by a variety of different issues, including social and economic factors. This innovative project intends to help reduce pressure on the NHS through early intervention on people’s medical concerns as well as a range of other contributing factors.
Our first year
As this is a new way of doing things in the UK, much of our first few months was spent preparing and training our team of 16 CHWWs for their new roles.
Since then, they’ve reached out to a total of 1,312 households across south Westminster, and have contacted them a total of 4,527 times, leading to 886 direct conversations about residents’ health and wellbeing needs.
We’ve supported them with a diverse range of issues: some have been supported to make GP appointments, referred to exercise or weight loss programmes, or given vouchers for hot meals at our café. We found one person didn’t have a washing machine, so we referred them for financial support so they could get one.
Another person was fighting an unfair dismissal at work, and didn’t have the necessary computer skills to apply for the support they now need. We helped them acquire a medical note from their doctor and fill in an application for Universal Credit, and are planning to support their application to a college where they can learn essential IT skills to support themselves in future.
While this project is still in its early stages, initial results are incredibly promising. During this time, data shows that households supported by our CHWWs have seen a 7% decrease in visits to A&E and an 11% decrease in overall hospital admissions (while these numbers have increased in comparable groups over the same period).
This shows us that Community Health and Wellbeing Workers have the potential to save millions of pounds for the NHS, as well as significantly improving quality of life for the people we serve.
Find out more
You can read more about how the CHWW project works here.
