Wandsworth Care Alliance

Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month

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Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month, held each November, aims to highlight the unique mental health struggles men face and encourage open conversations about mental health. While many men experience anxiety, depression, and stress, societal pressures can make it difficult for them to seek help, often resulting in silence and isolation.

Poor mental health can affect people of any gender, but mental health outcomes for men and women aren’t equal. Due to societal expectations of masculinity, men are less likely to talk to others about their feelings, so they suffer in silence.

This awareness month challenges stigmas, encourages men to seek support, and emphasises the importance of mental health services tailored for men. Through increased awareness, we can promote healthier coping strategies and foster supportive environments for men everywhere.

Tips for supporting Men’s Mental Health:

  • Encourage open conversations.
  • Normalise seeking therapy or counselling.
  • Promote self-care routines and healthy outlets for stress.
  • Foster supportive environments for men

Here are few organisations that provide support for men’s mental health:

To share resources for this article please contact communications@wandcareall.org.uk

IVAR – Women’s Health Conference

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On 11th September we attended the Women’s Health Conference at the Wandsworth Town Hall, hosted by the Mayor of Wandsworth, Councillor Sana Jafri, in collaboration with Women of Wandsworth.

One of the topics discussed was cervical screening; Wandsworth has some of the lowest cervical screening uptake rates in England, particularly in South Asian communities. Wandsworth Care Alliance, in collaboration with research organisation IVAR, have been doing some outreach to organisations that engage with women from a South Asian background. We want to understand potential barriers those women face in relation to uptake of screening, and some of the opportunities we can use for driving uptake.

Read more about the background of the project here.

Some of the findings from this event are written below:

Advertising cervical screening

  • We should broaden our thinking and target specific groups of people. For example, where do mums go? Stay and play sessions, play groups, etc. – let’s put up posters or leaflets there.
  • Can we do some outreach in smaller community groups or organisations?
  • Can we use social media or WhatsApp groups?

Language

  • Let’s think about the type of language and specific words we’re using. “Cancer” and “screening” may already be scary words for some people; therefore, we need to have easily accessible information that explains everything clearly and concisely so people can be properly informed rather than scared.
  • Professionals should also be mindful of potentially complex terminology they are using with individuals who may not speak English fluently. There are sometimes no words for certain medical procedures, conditions or instruments in certain languages. For example, there is no word for “hysterectomy” in Urdu.
  • We should make specific wording choices and use diagrams and pictures in order to aid us in explaining things clearly.

Taboo topic

  • Cervical screening is often considered an embarrassing topic to talk about. It is important to have ‘ladies only’ sessions and follow up in the community, in comfortable/safe environments. You must meet people in the places they are already going.
  • It’s good to be well informed and know the science behind why screening is important (e.g. early diagnosis, correct information). This makes it less taboo as we know that it’s an extremely common practice that everyone goes through.
  • We should be having early conversations to show it’s a normal thing to talk about. This should be in schools or before people are sexually active or having children.

    Resources:
  • Cancer Research UK – Cervical Cancer Screening

If you’d like to discuss or add to this article, please contact communications@wandcareall.org.uk

Access to Food in Wandsworth: Challenges and Community Solutions

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The above image is of Deaba from Deaba Catering CIC


Access to Food in Wandsworth: Challenges and Community Solutions

Access to nutritious and affordable food is an important and vital need, yet many residents in Wandsworth face significant barriers in accessing it. With the rising cost of living and the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, food insecurity has become a growing concern.

The cost of housing and other living expenses in the borough has been steadily rising, leaving some families with limited budgets for food. For many, this means choosing between paying for rent, utilities, and other essentials or putting food on the table.

Below we are highlighting the community-driven efforts to address these issues.

Community resources

In response to the growing need, several community organizations in Wandsworth have stepped up to provide support and resources to those struggling with access to food.

Saving money food places 

The Healthier Catering Commitment is a scheme that helps food businesses offer healthier choices to their customers. The scheme recognises businesses in London that demonstrate a commitment to reducing the levels of saturated fat, salt and sugar in the food sold in their premises. Refer to the map to find out where you can find healthier items on the menu before the next time you eat out. 

The list below is some great places you’re able to reduce food waste and find more affordable options to accessing food.

Want to donate food?

If you’re looking for ways to donate and support others who are experiencing hardship, we have a list below you can see.

  • You’re able to donate food items, toiletries, money and your time to Wandsworth Food Bank to support others.
  • Supermarkets – your local supermarket will have a food donation box or a food donation bag that you’re able to buy for someone who needs it.
  • You can make a donation to Wandsworth Food Bus.
  • FoodCycle also take donations from small businesses, supermarkets or anywhere providing fresh produce.

Volunteering Opportunities

If you’re interested in volunteering for organisations in Wandsworth who are helping to support others going through hardship, we’ve highlighted a few organisations who take on volunteers.

  • Food cycle are looking for volunteers and they have a wide range of roles to suit different skill sets. Learn more here. 
  • Family Action. Volunteer and help strengthen families and communities.

By working together, the community can continue to develop innovative solutions to ensure that no one in Wandsworth goes hungry. For current events in the community have a look on our events page.

Do you or someone you know urgently need help? Click here to learn more on how to get help with access to food. 

The Health Inequalities fund – everything you need to know!

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WCA are organising a new programme, working with the health service, 6 partner non-profit organisations, and a university evaluation team to help people in Wandsworth get legal support and welfare advice.

The fund has been designed by the ICB as part of a holistic (whole person) approach to health that sees how people are less likely to need mental and physical health services if they have a good standard of living, with an understanding of their rights and entitlements.

To approach this, the South West London Integrated Care Board (for the NHS), have found 6 themes that correlate to poor health outcomes. ​These themes are:

  • Black Asian Global Majority
  • Learning disabilities and autism​
  • LGBTQIA+​
  • Young and unpaid carers​
  • Socially isolated people​ (loneliness)
  • Asylum seekers and refugees.

They have given us a fund to help address the inequalities local people might be more likely to experience due to the underprivilege and discrimination these groups face. The fund will be used for improving the welfare and legal advice offer for better health outcomes.

Not for profit organisations work in the community, with these groups. As experts at reaching these communities, the ICB recognises that the funds need to be community led and distributed to 6 lead organisations on the frontline. This will help the ICB better understand the issues within these theme groups and help them to carry out preventative care more effectively after listening to the feedback from this project and others like it.

How does it work?

Wandsworth Care Alliance (WCA)manage, divide and distribute £320,000 to 6 leading organisationsto represent each theme. ​

We will then: ​

  • Work with the ICB​
  • Give development support and funds to project leads​
  • Set up a steering group for each project​
  • Coordinate external evaluation with Roehampton University

Together, with support from us (WCA) and having regular check-ins, project leads will design and deliver a programme responding to service users’ specific needs that runs between March 2024 – March 2025.
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How the project is going so far?

The six leads of the different themes have begun work on their projects in a variety of ways including research to understand the barriers faced in accessing welfare and legal advice, reaching out to their target groups to make them aware of the project, and carrying out workshops and 1-1 sessions. As the projects progress, we will provide more detailed updates on the impact of the work.

List of the organisations involved and links to websites here:

For more information on this project contact us at communications@wandcareall.org.uk

Free skilled work placements

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Skilled volunteering is a great way for people to share time in a way that really helps community work to grow. If someone works professionally in a job doing things like: HR, digital skills, marketing, PR, project management, etc. they might not even realise that spending a few hours each week helping a charity with a skills gaps, could amount to £1,000s worth of specialist help to work toward their objectives.

LinkUp LDN works across London to match skilled volunteers to charitable organisations, and being based in Battersea they have a long standing in the Wandsworth community.

Wandsworth Care Alliance recently recruited our first skilled volunteer from LinkUp LDN, and this article shares some answers to questions you might have about how it works.

What kind of skills are available?

LinkUp’s website asks for people with all skills including marketing, HR, strategy, communications, social media, legal, finance, data collection / analysis, research, writing organisational development, systems design and much more. We decided to recruit for a PR strategist and got a volunteer who could help us with advocacy too!

How do I know I’m eligible for a skilled volunteer?

LinkUp have a useful and easy form I recommend filling in even if you aren’t eligible. It will help you to reflect on your needs and ability to support a skilled volunteer. LinkUP will let you know the results with a friendly follow up.

How do I decide exactly what I need?

LinkUP have a several stage process for matching organisations, first the qualifier form, then a meeting, they will take you through the reasonable project timelines in a clear and informative way. In our 1-2-1 LinkUP really helped us to look at our wider needs and decide on priorities. They helped us to narrow down the volunteer specification to write an appealing advert, they then sent it back to us for feedback before posting.

How long does it take to recruit?

Recruiting volunteers varies depending on the skills and interests of prospective volunteers but they aim to make a match in a month. There is a big audience and it was very reassuring to hear that our volunteer found out about the programme through a friend who did a placement and enjoyed it. The programmes are popularly growing through word of mouth so there is plenty of potential to recruit.

How many volunteers can I recruit and for how long?

LinkUp limits each organisation to one active project at a time and the projects can last up to 3 months. The plausible commitment from a volunteer is 1-3 hours per week, you can discuss the pattern with them in a call but this is what they have found works and we trust it.

What will my volunteer be like?

LinkUp are great for bringing volunteers and organisations together but from that point on the organisation is responsible for making a volunteer agreement like any other volunteering route. It’s worth noting that a lot of skilled volunteers will be offering their time alongside a full time job so they might require contact out of office hours and its worth doing everything you can to engage them and thank them for the commitment they are making.

LinkUP do a great job however of checking in to make sure the project is progressing well and once you meet your volunteer in an online call between LinkUP, your volunteer manager, and the prospective volunteer you will be guided to decide what the work pattern and term could be. We work very flexibly with our volunteer, planning short weekly catchups as we would rather them spend their limited time on the project work. Each organisation will inevitably be different.

If you’re interested in advertising for a skilled volunteer, visit https://linkuplondon.org/ to find out more.

If you want to recruit general volunteers you can also advertise on our volunteer Wandsworth website too. Contact Jummy@wandcareall.org.uk to find out more or click here to register.

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