Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust hosted an online Women’s Health event for over 900 attendees across two days, inviting health experts and community organisations to give talks on relevant health issues.
Held two days before World Menopause Day 2024, people from across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight joined the seminar-style event to learn more about a range of conditions, from menopause to gender transitioning.
Educating, de-stigmatising and raising awareness
With the aim of educating, destigmatising, and raising awareness of women’s health issues, the Community Engagement and Experience team created this event following the success of their Men’s Health and Wellbeing Event in 2023, held in Hoglands Park, Southampton.
Both events were open to all, as reaching a wide audience allows the team to hear about service users’ unique perspectives on service provisions and experiences of care within the Trust.
Positive feedback
Community Engagement Facilitators captured valuable feedback from attendees, finding the comments to be overwhelmingly positive. One participant found out more than she had hoped for during Endometriosis South Coast’s (ESC) presentation, saying,
“I’ve learnt so much more about this (endometriosis) in the last 50 mins than I have in the last three and a half years.”
Hughes: Thank you to everyone who participated
Founder and Research Consultant for ESC, Jodie Hughes was honoured to be part of the health event, adding,
“I’m grateful to contribute to a dialogue that will help improve understanding, support, and care for those affected.
“Thank you to everyone who participated and asked questions, showing the power of community and awareness in advancing women’s health.”
Praise for the event
Members of the community, public sector professionals and healthcare workers alike joined the event, supporting individuals to learn more about issues they may be experiencing, as well as providing useful resources for healthcare workers to refer to.
One anonymous said that not only did the sessions help her as an individual, but she plans on using the information she learnt to help support her patients alongside the care she can deliver,
“I’ve LOVED it, please do it again. You’ve brought in interesting specialists from around the trust and introduced teams I didn’t know existed.
“I got a lot out of this personally, but it’s given me lots of information to share with patients to help them.”
A range of topics tackled
Each session tackled different topics in a safe space, opening the floor for meaningful discussions. The full agenda included talks on; sexual health, perinatal mental health, sexual assault, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), hormones, baby loss, breast screening and women’s cancer, bladder and bowel health, gestational diabetes, breastfeeding, pelvic health, menopause, endometriosis and understanding the challenges of navigating gender transitioning.
A week before the Women’s Health Event, bookings were closed due to unprecedented interest, a testament to the need for more community events focused on health and wellbeing.
The Community Engagement and Experience team is dedicated to working with our communities to reduce health inequalities and hopes to hold more health awareness events soon.
News shared by Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, in their own words. Ed
