Challenge Health Inequalities

Health inequalities disproportionately affect people from Black and Minority Ethnic communities. This is for THREE main reasons

Knowing our Health

• The health needs of Black and Minority Ethnic Communities are not adequately researched or understood by mainstream health and social care providers. This means they suffer a disproportionate impact from key illnesses. This includes HIV, Cancer, Diabetes, heart disease, and mental ill health.

Access to Service & Service Quality

• In receiving health and social care, Black and Minority Ethnic communities experience a lack of culturally appropriate techniques of care. This can include lack of interpreters to help people explain their concerns or failure to understand cultural practices, in areas such as diet, pregnancy and child care.

Where We Live

• BME communities also tend to live in the most deprived neighbourhoods in the UK. Poorer health is often the result of poverty, poor housing, poor diet and limited access to services. Over 30% of the population of Central Manchester define themselves as coming from a Black and Minority Ethnic community.

There are major differences between minority ethnic groups and the general population in the use made, and experience of, health care services. These occur both in terms of level of access to services and satisfaction with the quality of care.

Black Health Agency works to address and overcome these gaps on a national and regional level.

Our major strengths which together uniquely set us aside from other agencies are:
- Our diverse workforce including people from the communities with whom we work, who have a similar background, history and sense of sharing and empathy, where words may not be needed.
- Our relationships with communities as we have their trust and so have good access to groups and communities, allowing us to accurately gauge community needs.
- We, alone in the voluntary sector, work with the breadth of health issues facing BME, refugee and asylum seeking, disadvantaged and marginalised communities.