We are here to gather the views, opinions and experiences of local people around health and care. We provide safe and supportive environments to do this such as our men's and women's forums. As consumer champion to users of Manchester's health and care services, with a statutory role under the Health and Care Act 2012, we gather service user experience information and use it to represent the views and priorities of local people to service commissioners and providers and thereby improve services for people. We also have the most up to date signposting function for Manchester and are one of the city's safeguarding reporting centres.
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We are the local champion for Manchester people's health and care. Through our men's and women's forums: Manchester Men Speak Up! and Manchester Women Together! we provide spaces and opportunities for disadvantaged men and women to improve their health and wellbeing. Men and women are put in touch with services which would be otherwise unknown or unobtainable to them.
We do this by bringing together disadvantaged groups of men and women. They are disadvantaged by poverty, ethnicity, disability, or having English as their second language, or a combination of these barriers to health and wellbeing.
In these spaces, men and women can discuss any range of health-related subjects in confidence and can be signposted or assisted into accessing them before their health deteriorates. An example is the work we have done in promoting the Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) test to men so that they can get an early diagnosis of prostate cancer before it becomes life threatening. Another is the promotion of cervical screening to women who face language and cultural barriers in a way which is culturally appropriate and sensitive in order to enable them to get an early diagnosis of cervical cancer before it becomes life threatening.
We need funding to pay for these safe spaces. For the venue hire, for interpreters, for promotion in different languages, for resources to make the spaces accessible and welcoming to a diverse range of people.