Healthy Heart Report
Our Healthy Heart team work to raise awareness of cardiovascular disease in Barnet’s African, Caribbean and South Asian communities. People in these groups have a higher incidence of and mortality from hypertension, compared to the national average.
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Delivered 1,191 brief and extended brief interventions to people at our drop-in events.
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Provided over 170 more in-depth interventions during courses and workshops.
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Worked with over 30 organisations, including food banks, community centres, places of worship, schools and libraries.
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Distributed 873 English language Healthy Heart resource packs, and 248 Somali and Gujarati packs.
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Our Healthy Heart posts generated 4,556 X/Twitter impressions.
One participant said: '[The course] had great information to take and act on. How to take care of yourself, manage your blood pressure. See your GP if medication isn’t working.'
From p23, we set out data on our intensive Healthy Heart courses, and the changes which participants told us they had made since attending. When asked what action they would take if their blood pressure went above 140/90, three quarters of attendees gave the correct answer, saying that they would contact their GP.
Addressing health inequalities:
- In response to attendees’ language needs we produced Gujarati and Somali translations of our Healthy Heart resource pack.
- We organised Healthy Heart sessions in GP surgeries, reaching out to residents who were not engaging with their GP around heart health, offering them culturally tailored support, and encouraging those with high blood pressure to meet with health professionals in their GP surgery to discuss this.
- We also shared anonymous feedback with our statutory partners, and worked together to help address the inequalities faced by participants. This has, for example, resulted in a new primary care access project which we have developed in partnership with the NHS North Central London Integrated Care Board during 2024, focusing on ensuring that the information on GP websites is clear and accessible, and creating plain English resources for Barnet residents on how to access their GP.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Barnet Council and the NHS North Central London Integrated Care Board for their support and collaboration.
