Black and Minority Ethnic Group Toolkit to Support the Running of Diabetes Awareness Events for the South Asian Communities

Background

In 2005, Diabetes UK initiated a toolkit which aims to help community and religious leaders to organise their own diabetes awareness days.

One of our key goals is to meet the needs of diverse communities where diabetes is increasing at an alarming rate. We recognise that those who experience particular difficulties or face real inequalities in accessing diabetes services, require appropriate information, which may involve different communication and dissemination routes.

Through working with people with diabetes, community organisations and religious institutions, we have developed a substantial database of contacts with key members, community facilitators and religious leaders from diverse communities who have expressed a desire to hold health awareness days for their groups. To meet their needs, Diabetes UK has launched the toolkit to show community leaders and religious leaders how they can raise awareness of diabetes within their community groups.

The toolkit is available on the website and promoted via various communication vehicles to ensure that people from all communities and backgrounds are able to access it.

What is the problem you are trying to solve?

People from diverse and black and minority ethnic (BME) groups are at increased risk, relative to the white population, of diabetes and related conditions, and other diseases. What is most alarming, however, is that awareness of diabetes and its long term complications are low.

Numerous studies have highlighted the problems that many people from BME communities have experienced in accessing, using, and shaping services. The problem areas that receive most attention in the literature concern information - regarding the nature of need, lifestyle issues, and services available - and communication with professionals and other service personnel. These problems are particularly acute for people whose first language is not English and who do not have English as a second language. A symptomatic problem concerns the common practice of children acting as interpreters for their parents or other relatives. Additional problems are associated with the cultural insensitivity of services in terms of specific needs around religious and cultural observance.

What local organisations are involved?

Community organisations, religious organisations, healthcare professionals and people with diabetes from BME communities

How many people are running this project and who are they?

The team comprises: Jenne Dixit (equality and diversity advisor); Natasha Marsland (care manager) and Zoe Harrison (care advisor) at Diabetes UK.

What local population are you targeting?

South Asian community and religious leaders

How many people are you targeting?

• Type 2 diabetes is more common among South Asian and Black African Caribbean communities in the UK with over 300 000 people from those groups living with the condition.
• Diabetes affects around 6.5% of the UK’s BME population.
• People from South Asian and Black African Caribbean backgrounds develop type 2 diabetes on average five years earlier than white people.
• The impact of diabetes is greater on South Asian and Black African Caribbean populations in the UK.
• South Asians are up to three times more likely to have heart disease than white people with diabetes.
• South Asians are four times more likely to have kidney failure than white people with diabetes.
• Black African Caribbean’s are three times more likely to suffer a stroke than white people with diabetes.

Interventions

What interventions are you using to address the problem?

This toolkit, ‘A guide to how to run a diabetes awareness event in your community’, provides enough information and resources to set up a ‘Diabetes Day’, to inform and educate the local community in a language, format and environment that is most appropriate.

Is the project design based on evidence? If so, please state reference.

No.

Outcome

What outcomes or planned outcomes are you measuring?

We are measuring the number of events that took place at a local level and how many people accessed the toolkit via our website.

Do you have any outcomes or results yet? If so, what are they?

Over 200 events were held at a local level by healthcare professionals and community leaders.

Is your project relevant to a government target or guideline?

N/A

Feedback

What obstacles did you have to overcome to set up this project?

Some of the obstacles were around how we were going to evaluate the toolkit and how we would monitor the events that community/religious leaders hold as it wasn’t possible that representatives from Diabetes UK could attend each and every event that took place at a community level.

There were also dangers of awareness events taking place that Diabetes UK were not aware of.

What have you learned about the project so far?

We have learnt the importance of culture-specific information and the need to provide guidelines to healthcare professionals about how to reach people from these communities. If we had more resources, it would have been good to have the PowerPoint presentations and Toolkit in languages.

What would you do differently?

If Diabetes UK had sufficient manpower, it would have been good to have attended many of the events taken place at a local level and work with the community to build up a better evaluation.