Colleagues and members of the public discussing an activity at our White City Campus

Public Health England research has recently shown that people from Black and Asian ethnic groups are both more likely to catch COVID-19 and up to twice as likely to die from the disease than people from White British groups.

It tells us that “historic racism and poorer experiences of healthcare or at work” could make people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) groups less likely to ask for care, or insist on having personal protective equipment.

How can we understand the full picture of these inequalities? How can we tackle these and mistrust in communities? Join Janet Wildman, Dr Meerat Kaur and Samira Ben Omar as they take your questions, discuss their work and talk about how we move forward together.

If you have a question you would like to submit in advance, please email us at societal_engagement@imperial.ac.uk. We will try to get through as many as we can!

 

About our speakers

Meerat Kaur is the Deputy Theme Lead for Engagement and Involvement (interim) at NIHR ARC Northwest London. This programme is a partnership between Imperial College London and the NHS. Meerat’s research and practice focuses on exploring how we meaningfully work with our communities to tackle health inequalities, and how these communities shape and lead research.

Samira Ben Omar has over 20 years’ experience of working in grassroots community and voluntary , public health, local authority and NHS commissioning sectors. She led on various health improvement and peer support programmes the development of the Community Champions Programme, a community asset based model of health and wellbeing; prior roles include worked as Assistant Director of Patient Experience and Equalities for CWHHE CCGs. Head of System Change in the Integrated Care System for North West London Collaboration of CCGs. she is currently working as Assistant Director of Equalities for the North West London Collaboration of CCGs.

Janet Wildman has worked in the public sector for over twenty five years in a range of positions. She recently worked in NHSE in transformational change. She is currently a freelancer working with organisations interested in value based change, deliberative approaches, and system change. She is a contributor to Community Voices – Voice for Change.