Alice Higginson
“Since volunteering at Healthwatch, I am now studying mental health nursing at Manchester Metropolitan University. Healthwatch has provided me with lots of work experience opportunities that helped make my university application stand out. It has also given me the opportunity to join focus groups with NHS staff which gave me an insight into the healthcare industry.”
Caitlan Greenwood
“I first got involved with Youthwatch and have been supporting participation and feedback on GP services for young people and also sexual health services. Alongside this, I have been spending some time weekly supporting a local care provider that offers support to those discharged from hospital through the Dare To Care scheme. Overall, I would say the programme has been really effective in improving my communication skills and my confidence in interacting with different members of the community. This showed me how important it is to treat everyone as an individual, as well as highlighting the impacts that listening to others can have. Through Healthwatch, I have also been involved in supporting the National Institute of Health Research through the Research Ready Communities’ Pilot. This has been really interesting and our research has now moved onto our second phase, focusing on mental health inequalities in Blackpool. The pilot has shown me how crucial health research at community level is in bridging the gap between local people and the NHS.
Due to the variety of projects and opportunities at Healthwatch, I applied for an Activist in Residence role with BoingBoing Foundation, allowing me to complete an activist project surrounding local mental health services at Healthwatch. Alongside the staff at Healthwatch Blackpool, I’ve completed several focus groups with young people and have distributed my survey to get some real feedback on what good access and support looks like for them. I’m currently in the process of writing my report.
Healthwatch Blackpool has allowed me to develop my communication skills, my ability to build relationships and my knowledge of healthcare settings, which has enabled me to apply for Dentistry at university.”
Aimee Kerr
“Since volunteering at Healthwatch, I am now studying medicine at Keele University and very much enjoying it. Volunteering at Youthwatch gave me opportunities to gain the work experience I needed to gain my place on this course by helping me improve my communication skills, doing work in the community and it also gave me the opportunity to take part in work with the NIHR. This was a great piece of work experience that I was able to talk about at my interview. I very much enjoyed my time volunteering at Healthwatch and am grateful for the experiences gained for helping me get to where I am now.”
Heather Lewis
“Since volunteering at Healthwatch Blackpool, I started studying nursing at University and then changed courses to Education. For me, this change took a lot of confidence which I think I definitely lacked before starting volunteering – it is fair to say that Healthwatch built my confidence massively! Through its opportunities such as the research project for NIHR and meetings with regular discussions and other projects, it helped me to speak to so many new people and this undoubtedly has helped form me into the more confident person I am now, in my second term at Uni. I did things I had never done before which took me resilience to do so in the first place. The research sector in particular had not been a major source of interest to me previous to the NIHR project, but now I would be interested in doing more about it, so this has potentially helped me find out one of my interests for the future!
I am so grateful for Healthwatch helping me get to where I am now and providing me with experience in volunteering.”
