Staff from Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership’s (HSCP) Health Improvement Team have been working with Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust to co-produce cervical cancer screening awareness videos to encourage women with learning disabilities to be tested. 
 
Kenna Campbell, Health Improvement Senior, Glasgow City HSCP said: ”Data from the NHSGGC Public Health Screening Report (2018 - 19) highlights that the rates of attendance for cervical screening for women with a learning disability are only 28% compared to 72.1% in the rest of the population. Therefore, awareness raising and interventions are required to support this target group to learn more about the cervical screening programme and support them to make informed, positive choices. This work was funded through the Scottish Government Screening Inequalities Fund to address cancer screening awareness for those most affected by COVID-19 restrictions.”  

Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust staff, Iona Stoddart and Suzanne Kelly, identified Enable Scotland, a learning disability support organisation, to work in co-production with women with learning disabilities to understand the barriers that stop them from participating in smear tests.  As well as this, they were keen to develop videos to illustrate the process of getting a smear test from start to finish. 

To ensure information about what happens during a smear test was understood by women with a learning disability and factually correct within the videos, Lorna Dhami, Practice Nurse/Manager from Easterhouse Health Centre, joined the co-production group and was instrumental in the making of the videos bringing her knowledge and experience to the project.  

Lorna said: “I have worked as a General Practice Nurse for over 26 years and have had a keen interest in increasing the uptake of cervical smear tests carried out in my practice over this time. I was very privileged to be asked to participate in this piece of work with Jo’s Trust and the fabulous women from Enable Scotland. Having an open Q&A session was a real emotional moment, listening to what matters to each individual patient is so important, as well as the smear taker making time and allowing the person the time they need and the support they may need with them, to allow the procedure to take place.”

Suzanne Kelly, Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust said: “Developing this series of videos was a great experience and helped us to further our understanding of the barriers facing women with a learning disability in attending cervical screening. Our working group included Enable Scotland members and staff, practice nurse Lorna and Kenna from Health Improvement, and all were really enthusiastic about addressing screening inequalities by co-producing these resources.  We’ve had fantastic feedback on the videos, and we hope they will help women with a learning disability feel more informed about cervical screening.”

The five videos can now be accessed at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyQ4pPC6g0g&list=PLZiewZ4Ces2ZTqm2IfbfEfyKIKaLpULhz