Driving health promotion into the heart of the community


In 2003, Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland (RIBI) joined forces with the Black Country Cardiovascular Network (BCCN) to undertake a series of annual street-based stroke awareness days with other outside agencies to build on The Stroke Association’s ‘Know Your Blood Pressure’ campaign.


health checks for the public, as opposed to just a blood pressure check. Community collaborations such as this are usually hard to develop and sustain, given the enormity of tasks involved and their being of a voluntary nature. However, many groups were successfully engaged in working together and providing specific health promotion activities on the day. Within the project outlined here,


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partners included the Rotary club, health and social care professionals working across the cardiovascular pathway of care, from primary, acute, secondary and tertiary care, from universities, and heart and stroke patient and carer support groups. Within the event, the general public


were offered the opportunity to receive health checks without prior booking, through specific health forums and walk-in events. The venue was made up of various community settings such as town centres and outside local supermarkets, making it possible to involve many sections of the public not normally accessed by health professionals. Members of the general public were


approached by Rotary club members and offered blood pressure, pulse and blood glucose testing. Screening was administered by members of The Stroke


36 www.ribi.org | December 2011


he aim was to adopt a collaborative approach to organising a health promotion day and to provide full


Association working in partnership with a range of health professionals including smoking cessation advisors and student nurses on placement from the University of Wolverhampton. At some of the events, health trainers and Rotarians were on hand to provide Body Mass Index (BMI) readings. Department of Health (2009) Stroke: Act F.A.S.T. awareness campaign literature was also available and participants were signposted to local patient and carer support groups, stroke and heart support groups and the Arrhythmia Alliance. This project clearly demonstrates the


benefits of adopting a multi-organisational working approach within the community which can operate across organisational boundaries to the benefit of the general public and the organisations themselves. If health is the goal, the traditional


medical model, which is heavily invested in within general practice, is not the only means by which to monitor it. A broader perspective, such as the community approach developed here, expands the range of opportunities that are available to health professionals undertaking screening activity. It is also an effective way to enlist the collective efforts of voluntary organisations, as well as the lay public who have much to contribute in terms of experience and collaborative ways of working. The next generation of health promotion programs needs to confront the challenge of demonstrating value and improvement in engaging the public and this initiative is one such opportunity which provides community-tested evidence of feasibility and effectiveness. n


Carol Reilly Rotary Club of Walsall Saddlers, District 1210


Bill Huntley Memorial Peace Seminar


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warm Rotary welcome was given to all visitors and participants by Rtn Dick Hazlehurst, Host Area


Coordinator, and the Vice Chancellor, Professor Mark Cleary, on behalf of Bradford University. This year, we had an excellent attendance with over 250 delegates – word is obviously spreading. All 10 Rotary Fellows of Class IX


planned and took part in this year’s seminar. Every year, these outstanding students leave us in awe of their hard work and past and current achievements in the world’s most dangerous regions. Some of the Fellows who have been


working on similar problems of conflict in a particular country, but from a different angle, linked their presentations. Katja Karppinen, Jillian Larsen and Bianca Neff spoke about Humanitarian Response to the Somali Refugee Crisis, Sonja Basic and Marina Kharlamova on Alternative approaches to building Peace and Kayo Yoshida and Peter Opata on “Civil Conflict, Peacebuilding and Reconciliation; Experience from Sierra Leone. Single presentations were given


by Huot Sokunthea Land Conflicts in Cambodia; Maria Masullo, Bradford, Brussels, Bologna and return, and Juliana Amal, Conflict Minerals. Some of these talks really bring a lump to your throat when you realise the struggles they have gone through to get an education, and several of them have firsthand knowledge of life as refugees. Each year, we think the previous team


cannot be topped, but each year they all exceed our expectations. We should be proud of this Rotary Foundation programme and be assured that our donations are being really well spent. n


Margaret Hirst District1270


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