Access to Annual Health Checks and COVID-19 Vaccine Report

In June 2021, Healthwatch Lambeth were approached by Lambeth Council to talk to people with severe mental illness (SMI) learning disabilities (LD), and autism.

The aim of the project was to gain a better insight into people’s experiences of accessing health checks and COVID-19 vaccines, and to identify strategies that might help the council improve access to these and future physical health and vaccine campaigns. 

We worked closely with local support organisations to carry out semi-structured interviews with a total of 12 people and/or their carers or support workers. Our findings include: 

• Variations in people's understanding of what a health check is, when they had one, and what their entitlement is.
• The importance of support networks and proactive approaches by GP surgery staff  to provide access.
• Differing understandings of the COVID-19 virus among respondents.

Suggested strategies to improve access include working closely with trusted family members and carers to support decision making and access, encouraging peer-to-peer conversations, holding non-judgemental discussions with community leaders, bringing interventions into trusted spaces within the community, time, persistent encouragement and the provision of reliable information.