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Community Health Research
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Because many people in our communities do not know the value of health and social care research, another vital part of this work is to empower more of the people who are often left out of planning and deciding how health and care services are delivered have their views heard by getting involved. So we are also keen to encourage conversations about health research in all our communities and support better links between community and research.
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For information on training sessions and how to get more involved please click here
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​​What is REACH?
Research Engagement And Community Health: Working together for better health through effective research
Mission: To improve health and wellbeing outcomes and address health inequalities through cohesive, targeted and research-informed support for communities in Worcestershire.
We aim to:
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(Re) build trust in health and care services across the county
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Increase participation in community health research by diverse and seldom heard groups
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Encourage more consistent use of research evidence around what works in health and social care by the VCSE sector
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REACH Community Research Training Latest News!
REACH Worcestershire shows a social return on investment value of £3.68 per £1 spent
The Wellbeing team facilitated Research Engagement And Community Health (REACH) training, support and awareness raising between May and November last year. This project, funded via National Institute of Health Research, aims to help tackle health inequalities and raise engagement in health research in Worcestershire.
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50 organisations engaged and 30 people from 23 different VCSE organisations servicing diverse rural populations attended the training. From this we now have 15 organisations who are actively involved in research; or who have signed up or indicated that they are interested in becoming community satellite research hubs, ready to engage further in reducing health inequalities.
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The co-created REACH framework and training which set the training into the context of grassroots VCSE organisations was a key success factor and as a result we have created an enthusiastic community of VCSE organisations who are ready and keen to move forward with community research.
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A fantastic positive unintended outcome from the project is that rural VCSE organisations gained skills which they say will enhance their fund raising and service development activities. People gained intrinsic value from the research training regardless of their starting point with some organisations involved in/starting innovative research projects and implementing research principles into their ways of working.
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The evaluation included a Social Value Engine report which shows a social return on investment value of £3.68 per £1.
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In the report the top 3 outcomes from the REACH training project were:
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Develop research ready community satellite hubs
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Returns from building the VCSE organisation
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Increased Awareness and Uptake of Health Research
This resulted in the impact on each of the 3 stakeholders being distributed as follows:
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VCSE organisations: 51.57%
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Local Community: 24.35%
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NHS: 24.08%
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The REACH Community Research training provided me with practical research methods that I can directly apply in my work with care-experienced people. It was delivered by an experienced researcher who was engaging and inspiring. I enjoyed it immensely!
Rae Howard-Louvaine, Senior Engagement Officer
If you would like to be involved in health research personally you can find out more here: https://bepartofresearch.nihr.ac.uk/
