About Brent Health Matters

The goal of the Brent Health Matters Programme is to reduce health inequalities in Brent.

Inequality means that the resources required to create better health outcomes are not evenly distributed. Because of this the areas with poorer health outcomes or higher rates of long-term health conditions will have more focus than other parts of the borough.

It is only by working with the local people, groups and organisations around Brent and listening to what they have to say that we can improve the overall health of our borough.

It is only by working with the local people, groups and organisations around Brent and listening to what they have to say that we can improve the overall health of our borough.

Our shared programme engages with the community on a number of wide-ranging issues to reduce the health inequalities experienced in Brent.

In 2024 the work of the Brent Health Matters team will concentrate on the following priorities:

• Diabetes: We will work with GPs to identify patients with newly diagnosed diabetes, who have not been referred or accessed diabetes education sessions.
• Bowel cancer screening: we will raise awareness, focusing on deprived areas, Pakistani, Black African, Black other ethnicities, and people with Severe Mental Illness (SMI) to improve the uptake of bowel cancer screening.
• Hypertension: we will (a) Identify undiagnosed people with hypertension in the community through community events in our most deprived areas; and (b) support 2,060 diagnosed hypertensive patients from a Black ethnic background, who have not had any blood pressure recorded in their GP notes in the last 12 months.
• Severe Mental Illness (SMI) physical health checks: we will follow-up with the 10 to 20 per cent of patients who haven't had a SMI physical health check in the last year and do home visits to understand barriers and complete the checks.

We will also have a focus on children and young people in 2024, with the following priorities:

• Asthma
• Immunisations
• Mental Health

The long term impacts we want the programme to make are:

• Reduce variation in life expectancy and long-term health conditions (diabetes, hypertension, obesity, mental health, and cardiovascular disease).
• System-wide understanding of the cultural and local reasons why patients do not engage in NHS services, which will inform future planning.
• Actions delivered to address the wider determinants of health, from housing to employment and environment.

You can get involved in Brent Health Matters by becoming a Community Champion or joining us at our next Community Forum Meeting.

Brent Health Matters is working with neighbourhoods right across Brent. Our programme is focused around the five Brent Connects areas that cover the borough as follows:

Betania Tzegai is the Brent Health Matters Co-ordinator for Partnerships

Brent Health Matters is a programme jointly managed by Brent Council, local NHS services and the community.

Brent Council is responsible for the delivery of social care services, as well as other services that impact on health inequalities such as housing and neighbourhood services.

The Brent Integrated Care Partnership (Brent ICP) sits within the North West London Integrated Care System (NWL ICS) and works closely alongside a range of health partners to address health inequalities.

Find out about the Brent Health Matters partner organisations:

• Brent ICP
• North West London ICS
• Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust
• Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust
• London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust
• Healthwatch Brent
• Kilburn PCN
• Harness North PCN & Harness South PCN
• West K&W PCN, North K&W PCN & South K&W PCN