In 2009 a group of GPs working in deprived parts of Glasgow convened a conference and set out to explore how they could work together to address the issues they and their patients faced. As a result, they established the ‘GPs at the Deep End’ program.

This has increased workforce resilience, improved connections with community services, increased recruitment of new GPs, and addressed learning needs in relation to deprivation specific problems encountered in primary care.

In 2019 Hammersmith & Fulham CEPN started a version of this program for NW London. We applied the same principles to local contexts and created a curriculum based educational program which was attended by people from health, social care and voluntary sector organisations from across NW London.

We are pleased to be able to continue the initiative and will be running sessions over the Winter and into 2021. These will still apply a lens of health inequity but will focus specifically on the issues that have been most exposed by COVID-19, including the challenges faced by older residents.

Workshops explore the evidence relating to each topic, provide a chance for participants to meet and share common challenges and perspectives, and focus on practical solutions that can be implemented at grass roots level. They will cover the following topics:

1. Understanding complexity: life in the 'deep end' (Nov 3rd)
2. The power of consultations: the impact of empathy (Nov 17th)
3. Understanding vulnerability: domains of resilience (Dec 1st)
4. Understanding dependence: creation of demand (Dec 15th)
5. Self-care and wellness: rational choice & agency (Jan 12th)
6. Access and candidacy: literacy & digital exclusion (Jan 26th)
7. Promoting continuity: narrative & relational approaches (Feb 9th)
8. Mental health and wellbeing: 'depression' & loneliness (Mar 2nd)
9. Advocacy: power, privilege, status & passivity (Mar 16th)
10. Financial wellbeing: social capital & resilience (Mar 30th)
11. Food poverty: the social gradient to diabetes & obesity (Apr 20th)
12. Living in pain: pain as the expression of social distress (May 4th)
13. Trauma informed care: cycles of adverse experiences(May 18th)
14. End of life care: dying in poverty & compassion (June 8th)
15. Data and research: community participatory research (June 22nd)
16. Peer support: communities & professional resilience (July 6th)

Sessions will all be online and are open to clinical and non-clinical staff from across health, social care and the voluntary sector. You are welcome to drop in for a session or attend the whole course, but please register in advance.

The initiative is being run in parallel with additional training (QSIR) designed to equip people with the skills required to run grass roots change projects. QSIR is also free, open to all, and will run serially over the duration of the Deep End program.

Please contact us at H&F Training Hub if you require further information.