Community Conversations
Community Conversations
We recognise that as we move forward after Covid-19 that people, families and communities will have different challenges, perspectives and needs. in Spring 2021 we encouraged local organisations and networks to hold Community Conversations that brought together a broad range of teams, services and communities across Suffolk and North East Essex to share their ideas on ‘How do we heal from Covid 19?’ We asked each of the groups meeting together to identify five things that we need to take into account when we consider how we should heal, both reflections on the past and ideas for the future.
Click on the icons on the tree below to learn more about the five things identified by each of the Community Conversations.
Click on ‘Community Conversation Events’ below to see the list of events.
Logo | Organisation | Date/Time | Contact |
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Healthwatch Suffolk & Essex | 3:00pm, Wednesday 3 March 2021 | Sam Glover and Andy Yacoub sam.glover@healthwatchessex.org.uk. ceo@healthwatchsuffolk.org.uk. |
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Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich | 10:00am, Tuesday 16 March 2021 | Bishop Martin Seeley bishop.martin@cofesuffolk.org. |
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Community 360 | 11:00am, Monday 22 March 2021 | Timothy Fox information@community360.org.uk. |
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CVS Tendring | 2:30pm, Tuesday 13 April 2021 | Karen Tedder-Ward karen.tedderward@cvstendring.org.uk. |
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Survivors in Transition | 12:00 noon, Wednesday 14 April 2021 | Fiona Ellis fiona@survivorsintransition.co.uk. |
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Suffolk Libraries | 10:30am, Monday 19 April 2021 | Bruce Leeke bruce.leeke@suffolklibraries.co.uk. |
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North East Essex CCG | 8:30am, Tuesday 20 April 2021 | Nicole North nicole.north3@nhs.net. |
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Colne Radio | 8:00am, Monday 3 May 2021 | Rodney Appleyard rodney.appleyard@colneradio.net. |
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Kids Inspire | 8:00am, Wednesday 5 May 2021 | Maria Kirby and Elizabeth Bayliss mariakirby@kidsinspire.org.uk. elizabethbayliss@kidsinspire.org.uk. |
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Radio Suffolk | 10:00am, Friday 7 May 2021 | Cad Taylor radiosuffolk@bbc.co.uk. |
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Colne Radio | 8:00am, Monday 3 May 2021 | Rodney Appleyard rodney.appleyard@colneradio.net. |
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West Suffolk Alliance | 12:00 noon, Thursday 13 May 2021 | Joanna Cowley joanna.cowley@nhs.net. |
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St Helena Hospice | 3:00pm, Thursday 13 May 2021 | Nicola Button nbutton@sthelena.org.uk. |
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West Suffolk Alliance | 12:00 noon, Thursday 13 May 2021 | Joanna Cowley joanna.cowley@nhs.net. |
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Suffolk Libraries | 7:00pm, Thursday 27 May 2021 | Ruth Sparshott memyselfandbaby@suffolklibraries.co.uk. |
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Kids Inspire | 09:30am, Tuesday 1 June 2021 | Maria Kirby mariakirby@kidsinspire.org.uk. |
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How do we Heal: Our Health and Care Workforce | 3:00pm, Wednesday 2 June 2021 | Amanda Lyes amanda.lyes@suffolk.nhs.uk. |
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Suffolk Libraries | 10:00am, Monday 7 June 2021 | Bruce Leeke bruce.leeke@suffolklibraries.co.uk. |
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How do we Heal: Systems Learning Summit | 3:00pm, Wednesday 16 June 2021 | Susannah Howard susannah.howard2@nhs.net. |
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Let's talk about Long Covid | 2.30pm, Tuesday 20 July 2021 | Simon King simon.king@healthwatch.co.uk. |
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Let's talk about Long Covid 2 | 11.00am, Tuesday 7 September 2021 | Simon King simon.king@healthwatch.co.uk. |
Solma Ahmed
Bangladeshi Women’s Association
Essex
“Our community is already very, very isolated I’m afraid, and in Colchester and Tendring they are even more isolated than London or Birmingham. I have seen, and I have myself suffered from mental health issues. The challenge is how we reach out to those really hidden communities that have been disproportionately affected by Covid. We are getting out of it slowly. Physically we are surviving, mentally we are going to have long term issues.”
Bishop Martin Seeley,
Diocese of St Edmundsbury
and Ipswich
“Healing relates to medical, physical , mental, and spiritual but also to communities, relationships and the divisions and distinctions that have painfully and shockingly come to the fore: Divisions around wealth and poverty, race, age and disability – divisions brought into sharp focus by the virus. We have learned to recognise that globally we are in the same storm, but we are not all in the same boat. As some pass by, apparently unaffected in their luxury yachts while others a grasping at a plank to stay afloat. Others started in what seemed like a seaworthy boat but the storm has been just too great. Healing is about individual and communal health and healing our divisions so that no one is left out as we move forward. We need to keep asking ‘How do we help everyone heal?’”
Jon Neal and Ezra Hewing
Suffolk Mind
“Ironically what is stopping us as a system from adopting a shared vision of working towards meeting emotional needs across the system, is unmet emotional needs. When we feel that we don’t have control over things, when we feel stressed or overwhelmed by the challenges facing us it makes it difficult to learn. The only way we are going to solve problems is to learn our way out of it, which requires a long term commitment to learn something that is a complex idea not a quick fix – it isn’t a ‘just do this one thing’ and everything is solved. It is completely changing the way that we see health and wellbeing across the system and instead of focusing on symptoms, using a single technique or relying on medication – we all have needs that have to be met, but we have to have the environment, skills, services and resources to meet those needs. It’s everybody’s responsibility to make it happen.”
Ed Garratt, Executive Lead, Suffolk and North East Essex ICS
“The pandemic has created obvious damage and devastation, but it has also helped to heal our culture in many ways too. There has been a change in culture in the way that people now think about outcomes for the many and the few. There has been a big change, in particular in the health system, to seeing health more holistically. However, in truth we did not grasp the full seriousness and gravity of inequality. But there is reason to be hopeful, and to be confident. From an NHS perspective, in the last 15 months we have seen the end of the policy of competition and the proper launch of collaboration and co-production, and respectful communication between different partners. Our workforce is collaborating much more creatively between teams, organisations and sectors, and that will continue to develop. We have learned a lot from the voluntary sector’s agility, creativity and determination, and we support their spirit of positive collaboration, including through the digital agenda. Our communities are much more empowered, through the way that people have come together to support each other, the way the voluntary sector has stepped up, and the way that movements have come forward, such as the #whatarewemissing? movement in Ipswich and East Suffolk around listening to and supporting our local Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities. I am proud that we have placed an emphasis on learning. The focus on mental health is now much stronger than before. While is crucial that we embrace the wider determinants of health, access to, and quality of healthcare services has never been more important. The task we face is immense, but I am inspired by our leaders and their determination to recover properly over the coming years.”
Last Updated on November 18, 2021