Advantages And Disadvantages Of Involving Local Residents

Involving local residents is a feature of the New Deal for Communities approach. Discuss the advantages and the challenges of involving local people in the running of community health projects.

Under the New Deal for Communities initiative Thornhill plus you secured funding for renewal of the Thornhill area. The aims are to reduce social exclusion and improve people’s quality of life. I will discuss some of the advantages and challenges of involving local people in the running of community health projects.

Dave Kellet is a Thornhill plus you director who believes that if you have local involvement in Thornhill plus you then it is going to work better. Dave Kellet explained that the government set out five target areas to regenerate communities
Sometimes local lay members may assume that professionals are involving locals to keep them quiet and not actually take their views seriously. However this has not been the case in the Thornhill plus you group. Dave Shields Strategic Services Manager at Southampton City Council also pointed out that some statutory agencies don’t trust Thornhill health and well being project to run its own affairs. This places extra pressure on resident members of the board.
Not all local residents have as much experience as for example Gwneth Baker who has worked in health and well being organisations before in Thornhill. This could be a problem when local residents running community health projects do not have adequate experience. There have been conflicts arising previously between health professionals and local residents when addressing methods in improving people’s health. It was felt that a changes of direction was needed from professionals telling people what to do i.e. ‘Give up smoking’. This issue was resolved by the idea of developing a smoking cessation