Our Partnership is made up of organisations working closely together to plan services and address the challenges facing health and care services across the area.
In this section you will find links to useful information and publications about our partnership.
We are committed to meaningful conversations with people, on the right issues at the right time. We believe this is an important part of the way we work.
In this section you will find all Freedom of Information (FOI) requests made to our Partnership. You can also ask a question of your own.
We know that not only hospitals and doctors keep people well; a person’s life choices are also important. We need to see a change in people’s behaviours, built on trust and empowerment, where the benefits of self-care, early help and preventing ill health can flourish. The success of this relies on our communities more than any other stakeholder groups.
That's why we're launching a campaign to try and reduce loneliness and isolation across West Yorkshire and Harrogate, 'Looking out for our neighbours', which launched on 15 March.
Visit ourneighbours.org.uk to sign up to support the campaign now.
We are really keen to hear your stories and experiences so far.
From early May we will be launching the ‘Looking out for our neighbours’ positive experiences campaign, when we will be sharing some of the great neighbourly activities that have been happening across West Yorkshire and Harrogate.
Your continued support is integral to the success of this campaign. Thank you. Please take a few minutes to fill in this short questionnaire and/or share with any relevant contacts so we capture what has been happening so far.
The deadline for responding to this questionnaire is 25 April 2019.
LAUNCH THE QUESTIONNAIRE
Thank you to everyone who has supported the campaign so far. You can learn more about some of the statistics behind the first two weeks of the campaign on this downloadable infographic.
More neighbourly interactions and education on how to support vulnerable neighbours in a community can also have a positive impact on issues associated with loneliness, reducing the possibility of dementia, heart disease and depression. Lonely people are more likely to suffer from these conditions.
Findings published in Age UK’s new report “All the lonely people: Loneliness amongst Older People” (2018) show that the number of older people who are lonely has remained relatively constant and that the numbers are rising fast. This could be a major public health concern because if loneliness is not addressed it can become chronic, seriously affecting people’s health and well-being.
A Health Foundation report (December 2018) highlighted how living alone can make older people 50% more likely to find themselves in A&E than those living with family. Pensioners living alone are also 25% more likely to develop a mental health condition. Social isolation can raise the risk of having a stroke by a third and is considered as unhealthy as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
Our Partnership has allocated £1m to support voluntary and community organisations through the WY&H HCP Harnessing the Power of Communities Programme to help tackle loneliness and to further support the role of VCS partners in our local areas. This campaign offers further support for this work.
If we can re-engage communities in looking out for their neighbours by providing local tips for wellbeing at a neighbourhood level, then we have the potential to positively impact on the increasing demand on health and care services – by working together and looking out for each other.
As part of our market research, we carried out some insight /testing with a sample of people in the following areas to ask them about what makes a good neighbour; their perceptions of community spirit and what sort of things they would be willing to do for a neighbour.
Findings suggest that being neighbourly is different to having a community spirit. Residents tended to prefer campaigns that come from within their communities. This makes the role of community champions. organisations and advocates an important part of our campaign. This is why we’re localising our campaign, which was co-created with over 100 people across the region.
Nearly 400 people and organisations, from councils, the NHS, emergency services, schools, charities, third sector, sports clubs, arts and community groups across West Yorkshire and Harrogate are supportive of the campaign.
Partner organisations are showcasing the campaign on their websites, with Looking out for our neighbours branded pages such as this one from NHS Calderdale Clinuical Commissioning Group.
We will measure opinions against the baseline insight and we will set out to find the difference (if any) the intervention has made in each area drawing upon case studies and anecdotes from the public. The academic partner and behaviour change expert, Dr Bridgette Bewick (University of Leeds), will analyse the interviews so we can provide a more robust report on the impact of the campaign.This methodology was used for Breathe 2025 (a regional movement).
Our Partnership is in a unique position to work together to make a positive difference together with communities and neighbourhoods.
Visit the official 'Looking out for our neighbours' website at ourneighbours.org.uk for more information about the campaign, which launched on 15 March, and to see what kinds of things you can do to look our for your neighbours in your own community.
Please get behind this important campaign and show the power of working together to benefit us all.
