Our 2021 so far…
There are ten volunteers in the Youthwatch Trafford team at the moment: Arjun, Diana, Diya, Evie, Luis, Madhia, Mila, Malaika, Priya, Sohail.
We just said farewell to Hania who is hoping to study medicine at University next year!
2021 has been a busy year so far:
The brilliant Heather Henry of Breathchamps ran a training session for us in January to help us learn about asthma and how we can all help other young people to breathe better. With her support, we’re hoping to put a new webpage of asthma awareness advice together soon.
We were part of the review team helping Healthwatch Trafford to assess all 29 GP practice websites in Trafford – see the report we contributed to on the Healthwatch Trafford website.
Being involved allowed me to view healthcare around Trafford, and how patient-centred care really is crucial. It was fun being able to visit different websites and check the benefits of each, and how patients can really be supported using them.
Diana
This project gave me an insight as to how privileged the Trafford area is in that the GP websites tend to have great user functionality (at least the ones I tried) and they are easy to follow and make appointments with.
Arjun
In addition to this, it is easy to seek COVID-19 information and guidance on the mainframe of the website which is extremely helpful.
We’ve just finished a full refresh of our website youthwatchtrafford.co.uk so you know you’re reading up to date information if you need help.
Six of us have been trained by YouthFocusNW to be young health inspectors. In April we took part in two Bee Counted inspections of local services, with more planned for later in the year. We worked together with other young people across Greater Manchester to decide what we wanted to ask in the inspection and we wrote up our own findings. Reports coming soon!
The Bee Counted inspections were really useful, to start with I hadn’t realised there were nurse community centres. Its encouraging to hear though that when problems were identified they were more than happy to try and solve it by working with us or others, in particular in having a youth participation group.
Luis
It has helped me learn what some of the common problems with a healthcare team could be and how they can be resolved.
Being part of the Bee Counted inspections was incredibly eye opening and I realised how lucky we were to be able to review the services provided to young people. The representatives of the service I reviewed were so friendly and engaging, and were very enthusiastic about answering our questions. I truly felt that they were intending to our concerns and that our input was valued.
Malaika
Coming up next: a mystery shopping exercise which we’ve planned with Trafford Council.
Fancy joining us? Recruitment opening soon!
Email Kaf, Healthwatch Trafford’s Volunteer Officer, at katherine@healthwatchtrafford.co.uk or text/whatsapp her on 07479613732 or you can see About Youthwatch Trafford for more information.
