An NHS trust has held an online women's health event that attracted more than 900 people.
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust hosted the event over two days, with health experts and community organisations giving talks on relevant health issues.
The event was held just two days before World Menopause Day and was organised by the community engagement and experience team at the trust.
People from across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight joined the seminar-style event to learn more about a range of conditions, from menopause to gender transitioning.
The team held the event following the success of their Men's Health and Wellbeing Event in 2023, which was held in Hoglands Park, Southampton.
Both events were open to all to reach a wider audience, allowing the team to hear about service users' unique perspectives on service provisions and experiences of care within the trust.
Community engagement facilitators received overwhelmingly positive feedback from attendees.
Founder and Research Consultant for ESC, Jodie Hughes said: "I’m grateful to contribute to a dialogue that will help improve understanding, support, and care for those affected. Thank you to everyone who participated and asked questions, showing the power of community and awareness in advancing women’s health."
One anonymous participant said: "I’ve LOVED it, please do it again. You've brought in interesting specialists from around the trust and introduced teams I didn’t know existed. I got a lot out of this personally, but it's given me lots of information to share with patients to help them."
Members of the community, public sector professionals, and healthcare workers joined the event, learning more about issues they may be experiencing, as well as gaining useful resources to refer to.
The full agenda included talks on sexual health, perinatal mental health, sexual assault, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), hormones, baby loss, breast screening and women’s cancer, bladder and bowel health, gestational diabetes, breastfeeding, pelvic health, menopause, endometriosis and understanding the challenges of navigating gender transitioning.
Bookings were closed a week before the event due to "unprecedented interest" and the community engagement and experience team is hoping to hold more health awareness events soon.
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