Birmingham Voluntary Service Council (BVSC) Research collaborated with Birmingham Changing Futures, Institute for Community Research and Development, Revolving Doors and University of Wolverhampton to investigate the Covid-19 vaccine uptake in Birmingham amongst those with multiple disadvantage. The Wesleyan Foundation part funded this project with a £13,000 donation.
Sophie Wilson, Director of BVSC Research, shared:
“We’ve been hearing from people with multiple disadvantage, so that’s individuals with a mixture of mental health issues, substance abuse, offending behaviour and homelessness, that there was resistance amongst that particular cohort of people with the vaccine uptake. Given the disadvantage faced by that group of individuals, we wanted to make sure that whether A) that was the case and B) if it was the case then what was driving some of that behaviour and thinking. We then conducted one-to-one interviews with 27 people experiencing complex disadvantage about their views of the Covid-19 vaccine.”
Lauren Bennett, Evaluations Manager at Revolving Doors, added:
“We managed to speak to people with substance abuse through a drugs and alcohol charity, we spoke to people experiencing homelessness and drug use through the Big Issue. We spoke to a charity who works with people involved with the criminal justice system.
“What was interesting in the findings of why people wanted or didn’t want the vaccine was that their opinions were no different to the general population. I think there’s distrust in the system and government, these people had been let down and that wasn’t because of the pandemic necessarily, that was deep-rooted and longstanding. So when asked to take the vaccine by a government you don’t trust that obviously affected this group.
“We went back to the focus groups to share and comment on the findings as a shared learning exercise and share the experiences of people on the ground because it’s all well and good to make a statement that people do or don’t want the vaccine but it’s about understanding why and being able to address that appropriately.
“These findings will have an ongoing impact on how we approach the issue, especially in terms of boosters. We wanted to flag for the need of partnership between the NHS and these organisations.”
Sophie concluded:
“If we didn’t have the funding we wouldn’t have been able to do this research. What I think is unique about our work and the way we’ve delivered this research is that we’ve had real, intrinsic involvement with people with lived experience. It’s so important that through our work we’re so giving a voice to this really disadvantaged group who often get excluded from lots of things, and we can actually raise their profile to help reduce some of the barriers they face.”
“Research as a whole is really important, it’s not just academic research, it’s practise-based research that’s applicable and really useful to the sector. It can be used and supports communities by getting the voices heard that perhaps wouldn’t be heard otherwise.”
Click here to read the findings from this research.