Project Leads: Dr Sara Paparini, Dr Vanessa Apea, Dr Rageshri Dhairyawan
Yet there is a lack of effective involvement of Black people in the development of healthcare, research, and public health plans; fewer Black people from Black communities are employed in research institutions, thus less power over how research evidence is collected from Black people and how it is used.
This theme is part of a wider effort to address the systemic racism and other issues that contribute to health inequalities in Black communities. By working with communities to develop and implement research, SHARE is helping to create a more equitable healthcare system for all.
The ALIVE (Amplifying the Lived Experience of East London communities) study has been co-designed to explore the lived realities and priorities of women of Black African and Black Caribbean heritage women living in East London (London boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Newham, Waltham Forest, Redbridge, Hackney, Barking and Dagenham and Havering). It is a mixed-methods, observational study comprising of surveys, focus groups and 1-2-1 interviews, rooted in community participation. Delivered primarily by a team of Black women, it aims to gain a deeper understanding of the needs and health outcomes of Black women to better design services and interventions.
Partnership For Black People’s Health is a community-led research project that engages Black African and Black Caribbean communities in collaboration with SHARE in research to reduce the widely recognised disproportionate burden of health inequalities they face in all areas of medicine and public health.
The project aims to strengthen an existing, diverse network of clinicians, community organisations, academics and members of the public in order to build a research agenda and explore methods for developing new ways of partnering to involve Black people. This is done through events led by involvement leads that are tailored to different groups, such as young people, people living with specific health conditions, recent migrants, and others. What we learn from this is then used to co-produce applications for funding for further anti-racist research and interventions to address health inequalities in heterogeneous Black communities.
The project is funded by NIHR under the Programme Development Grants – Developing Innovative, Inclusive and Diverse Public Partnerships stream.
If you’d like more information about research theme four, please contact the project leads:
Dr Vanessa Apea
Email v.apea@nhs.net
Dr Sara Paparini
Email s.paparini@qmul.ac.uk
Dr Rageshri Dhairyawan
Email rageshri.dhairyawan@nhs.net