News and reports

Healthwatch England investigated the care stories people shared with them to identify four common challenges faced in accessing support.

Earlier this year, HW Brighton & Hove collected your views of maternity and postnatal support. We shared this with Healthwatch England. Thanks to your stories the Government has confirmed plans for NHS England to work with the Royal College of GPs to develop new guidance on 6-8 week postnatal checks to support women’s mental health after giving birth.

It’s been an extremely busy first month in my new role but certainly not dull.

"I thoroughly enjoy helping with the queries and over the year and a quarter I have gained a great deal of experience in handling many varied queries."

"Being a volunteer has been rewarding"

'I have been working on the Hospital Discharge project since January 2021 and simply enjoy speaking to people.'

Ian shares his story of trying to access mental health support and its impact on his wellbeing. Do you have an account that NHS services could learn from?

Social care support changes people’s lives but sadly, not everyone gets the support they need. We want to understand what life is like when you can’t get support or if the support you get just isn’t enough.

"I wanted to give something back to the NHS for the privilege of being employed by it for so many years. From my experience in working within the NHS, I believed I had something to offer as a Healthwatch volunteer."

"I am excited to be a part of new Young Healthwatch projects in the future and influencing decision-making, and making a difference for young people."

"Since joining, I have had the privilege of meeting a wide range of people who rely on social care. Meeting people in their own homes has blown away any preconceptions and given me a whole new perspective of 'old' and 'vulnerable'."

"This is a really interesting role as no query is the same and often a fair bit of research is needed to come up with an answer or a way forward. At the same time, its a way of identifying developing healthcare trends for Healthwatch to investigate."