Blogs

Our blogs highlight the voices of people working across the health and social care sector, talking about a range of timely issues.

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- 11 June 2024
The Unseen Heroes: The Role of Unpaid Carers
Alvyi Samuels
To mark Carers Week 2024, Alv, who is an unpaid carer for his husband, one of National Voices’ Lived Experience Partners, has written about his lived experience and why carers are so important to our society.
- Lived experience
- Person-centred care
- Communication and administration
- 7 May 2024
Not in School: barriers to school attendance
Zainab Shafan-Azhar
The Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition and Centre for Mental Health have sought to determine what is driving the rise in school absence in their new report, ‘Not in school: The mental health barriers to school attendance’.
- Health inequalities
- Hospital waiting lists
- 29 April 2024
We need to protect smaller charities
Lisa Weaks
Lisa Weaks, Senior Associate at The King’s Fund, discusses the winners of the GSK IMPACT Awards and shares reflections on the current pressures facing smaller charities and what may need to change.
- Health inequalities
- Person-centred care
- 23 April 2024
How can we sustain action on tackling health inequalities? Reflections from our national learning event for Core20PLUS Connectors
Sarah Sweeney
Sarah Sweeney, Director of Membership and Development, reflects on her recent experience of chairing the national learning event for the Core20PLUS Connectors programme.
- The Core20PLUS5 Community Connector Programme
- Health inequalities
- Integrated care
- Lived experience
- 18 April 2024
Individual PIF TICK launch will help more people access and recognise trusted health information
Dan Wills
The way people search for and use health information is changing. Four years ago the Patient Information Forum (PIF) launched the PIF TICK quality mark to help people identify trusted health information. Now, we have expanded the scheme to allow individual health content creators to apply.
- Communication and administration
- 28 March 2024
Leading community dental provider, CDS CIC, removes barriers to dental care faced by patients with SMD and/or homelessness
Nicola Milner
Six months into a year long pilot programme delivering dental care to patients with severe multiple disadvantages (SMD) and/or homelessness, Community Dental Services CIC (CDS) has treated over 145 patients and has referred patients on for smoking cessation, drug misuse and alcohol services, also using the sessions to provide information around better oral health and prescribe high fluoride toothpaste at each visit.
- Health inequalities
- Person-centred care
- Primary care
- 14 March 2024
Avoidable poverty is damaging the health of people with Parkinson’s
Sue Christoforou
Two years into the cost of living crisis, we at Parkinson’s UK wanted to know if and how people living with the condition were being affected by the still high and rising cost of basic essentials. The results were shocking. Our survey revealed that the health of people with Parkinson’s is being damaged by avoidable poverty.
- Health inequalities
- 27 February 2024
The NHS must work for all – our general election priorities
Sharon Brennan
In what is highly likely to be an election year, we at National Voices have launched our Manifesto for Equitable Healthcare. Sharon Brennan, Director of Policy and External Affairs discusses our manifesto asks in more detail.
- Hospital waiting lists
- Health inequalities
- Communication and administration
- 22 February 2024
#HealthNow partnership demonstrates the transformative value of Peer Advocacy
Jo Brown
#HealthNow, a peer-led partnership between Groundswell, Crisis and Shelter, recently came to an end. Across four years, it tackled homeless health inequalities at a national level, as well as locally in Birmingham, Greater Manchester and Newcastle.
- Health inequalities
- Lived experience
- Integrated care
- 13 February 2024
A lost decade of progress tackling heart disease will worsen existing health inequalities
Dr Tom Speight
The number of people in England dying early from heart and circulatory diseases has risen to the highest level in over a decade. This lost progress will only worsen the widening health inequalities. Protecting the nation’s hearts should be a top priority to shrink the health gap between the richest and poorest.
- Health inequalities