Racism can have a profound impact on people’s wellbeing and talking about it isn’t always easy. To help start those conversations, Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW) has produced two resources to support both staff and patients to understand racism.
Dr Selma Ebrahim, Consultant Clinical Psychologist in the Trust, said: “We are aware how distressing incidents of racism can be and that they can have a significant impact on people’s wellbeing.
“We wanted to develop resources that are easy to access to support conversations about racism. We hope this will raise awareness of racism and its impact.”
An accessible video and leaflet have been designed for people with learning disabilities in mind, but it’s hoped the content will be useful for everyone.
The leaflet explains that racism is treating people unfairly because of their skin colour, religion, or way of life. It encourages everyone to be kind, to learn about racism and to speak up to stop it.
Selma added: “We know talking about racism can be hard and people can be unsure about how to start conversations.
“We’re all on a learning journey. We want to support open communication and give people the confidence to talk about it and learn together.
“Everyone should feel safe in our services, whether they’re accessing them as a patient or carer, or delivering them as a member of staff.”
The resources have been developed with experts by experience from the Northumberland Learning Disability Voice Group and the Sunderland Tree-gether Group.
Feedback from the groups said they found the resources easy to understand, and that the video was particularly helpful.
The video was made by the Trust’s Patient Information Centre using Synthesia, an AI-driven video platform, the first video of its kind for the Trust.
Karen O’Rourke, Patient Information Centre Manager, said: “It is important to share information in different accessible formats so that everyone can understand it. Some people find written information difficult, so alongside a traditional written leaflet, we have used AI to create a video that explains the information in a clear and easy-to-understand way for people with a learning disability.
“We also know that the best accessible information is made with people who have lived experience. By listening to experts by experience, we can check that the video is clear, respectful and helpful. Using AI in this way helps remove barriers, supports understanding, and makes sure information is accessible to more people.
“We hope to make many more easy read patient information leaflets into accessible videos in the future.”
Both resources can be found on the CNTW webpage.