The North East and North Cumbria health literacy team is inviting members of the public to take part in a research study with the University of Sunderland.

The team has made a set of health literacy standards for organisations to follow and wants to understand how to help organisations use the standards.

Who can take part?

You can join if you:

• Are aged 18 or over
• Have used healthcare services in the UK (such as GP, hospital, NHS, private, or community services)

What’s involved?

• A one-hour online group discussion (via Microsoft Teams)
• Sharing your experiences and views in a small group

You will receive a £25 digital gift voucher as a thank you.

Health literacy is about people being able to understand health information, making it easier for them to do this. It’s talking to patients using everyday words and writing to them in a way that’s clear to help patients make informed choices about their health.

It is important that health information is written in a way that can be understood so that people can make informed choices about their health. The average reading age of adults in the UK is nine to 11 years old. Half of adults find it hard to understand health information. So they struggle to use it to help their health and wellbeing. This creates health inequalities.

People with low health literacy:

• Are more likely to die younger
• Are more likely to have long-term conditions
• Miss appointments more often
• Find it hard to take medication correctly
• Feel worried and angry
• Struggle to look after their own health effectively

What can we do about it?

We can all share clearer health information. We can all speak and write in ways that make it easier for our patients to understand.

We can write in a clear way, at the average UK reading age. We can use as little medical jargon as possible. We can talk about health using everyday words.

We can check with patients if we’ve explained clearly before they go home. The regional health literacy team is here to help with this.

Take part in the research study here: https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=YNmgFnTuVk-iKhmuBXkYskbNwkzT9ERIohj38I3unWlUNlRTWFJCN0Q2OTVTSzQxWlRDSFJOWUpPNS4u&route=shorturl

Hospital discharge is one of the key priorities in Healthwatch South Tyneside’s 2026-27 Operational Plan after engagement with local people highlighted public concerns.

They include the lack of care plans put in place when needed and a lack of communication with family members.

We have launched an online survey to find out about your – or your relative/friend’s – experience of hospital discharge.

Questions include information about the ward you were you discharged from, if you had an expected or predicted discharge date and whether you had to wait beyond this date.

The survey also asks whether you felt involved in decisions made for your discharge from hospital and if you were involved in your care plan.

It also includes questions about whether you had the opportunity to discuss with a member of staff any worries or fears about your discharge or if you were given a contact number on the day of discharge if you had any concerns.

Finally the questionnaire asks about your experience in the discharge lounge.

The aim of the research is to inform improvements in the hospital discharge experience in South Tyneside, as Chair of Healthwatch South Tyneside John Lowther explained: “A better patient experience of hospital discharge is paramount in our work.

“For those who need greater support, the input of family and carers will also be key to understanding the gaps and the challenges to overcome in the current system. I’d urge any local patients who have recently been discharged from hospital, or their relatives/friends if more appropriate, to take part in our survey and tell us about your experience.”

The survey can be completed here: surveymonkey.com/r/KMS2TWB

North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) is inviting members of the public to take part in a new research study exploring the experiences of families following the death of a loved one outside hospital.

When someone dies unexpectedly, either at home or in a public place, ambulance clinicians are often the first to deliver both emergency care and emotional support.

A new research study aims to explore how families perceive that support and what they found helpful or what could have been done differently, with a view to improving how the service supports grieving families in future.

Research paramedic Owen Finney is leading on the study as part of his master’s degree in clinical research at Newcastle University funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration North East and North Cumbria.

He said: “Ambulance crews attend more than 400,000 incidents every year. However, sadly, due to the nature of some of those incidents, some patients pass away despite the best efforts of everyone involved.

“Caring for the person who is with that patient when they die – whether that’s a family member or friend – is a really important part of the care we provide as paramedics; it’s an incredibly distressing time for that person and we want to support them as best we can.

“However, there’s very little research about what people want from us at that point. We have an idea of what we do, but we want to see if what we’re doing is working. We’re seeking to ask people who have experienced a bereavement in these circumstances what was important to them during that time, what worked well and if anything could have been better.

“Every paramedic has different ways of breaking bad news and every circumstance is obviously different in the way you approach it as a paramedic – I’ve been a paramedic for nearly eight years and every time I’ve broken bad news it’s been different. However, I’m interested to see if there any common themes that might inform future training.”

Andrew Hodge, Director of Paramedicine at NEAS, added: “Losing a loved one is an incredibly painful experience, and we recognise the lasting impact those first moments can have on a family.

“This study is an important opportunity to understand bereavement care from the perspective of those who experience it first‑hand. The insights we gain will play a crucial role in shaping future training and informing how our clinicians support families during the most difficult moments. We are committed to learning, improving and ensuring that every interaction reflects the care and compassion our communities deserve.

“We are grateful to anyone who feels able to share their experience and help us strengthen the support we provide to families across the North East.”

The study is open to anyone in the North East who has lost a loved one whilst receiving care from the ambulance service over the last two years. This includes incidents where the patient has died at the scene – either at home or in a public place – or shortly after being transported to hospital.

Participants will be interviewed either online via Microsoft Teams or in person at a local ambulance service site. The interviews will explore the person’s experiences and what they felt was helpful or could have been done differently.

Each interview will last between 30 and 60 minutes, and all responses will be anonymised to protect participants’ privacy.

Participation is voluntary, and people can withdraw at any point up to 24 hours after the interview.

If you would like more information, or wish to take part, please email:

owen.finney@neas.nhs.uk

Healthwatch South Tyneside is calling for waiting times for initial mental health consultations and diagnosis for young people in the borough to be reduced significantly in a new report.

Latest data* shows the number of new under-18 referrals to secondary mental health services in the borough is significantly higher than the national rate.

In South Tyneside this was 15,685 per 100,000 in 2022/23, 62 per cent higher than the national rate of 9,684 per 100,000 and 23 per cent above the regional rate of 12,763 per 100,000. The recent trend for this indicator is increasing.

Young people’s mental health was selected as a key priority in Healthwatch’s Operational Plan in response to feedback we had picked up via signposting contacts and our work out in the community.

Thirty voluntary sector organisations and statutory services we contacted agreed to share our details with the young people they supported or relevant colleagues, and Healthwatch visited five of the organisations.

An online survey was shared on their social media platforms, newsletters, bulletins and within their groups. We also took out a sponsored post on Facebook and Instagram, which generated more than 300 click-throughs to the online survey link.

The survey asked questions including who young people sought support from if they were struggling with their mental health, how they rated their experience of local mental health services and how services could be improved, including those offered in schools.

We received 53 survey responses and common themes included long lead-in times for mental health support, the way young people felt they were spoken to by health professionals and a call for more promotion of available support.

Comments included:

“Why does everything take so long? We need help when it’s in front of us – not in a year or two.”

“Professionals need to listen more to young people who are struggling. I’ve had a few experiences where professionals have spoken over me. This made me feel kind of like I didn’t matter.”

“I think there should be a lot more advertising of what support is out there.”

One service which was singled out for praise by a number of respondents was Stopping Unsafe Relationships Together (SURT).

In the report, Healthwatch has called on the commissioners and providers of mental health services for young people in South Tyneside to ‘significantly reduce’ the waiting times for initial consultations and diagnosis.

It also recommends increased signposting to other appropriate services to help reduce waiting times and for more promotion of mental health services for young people in places such as schools, colleges, community venues, cinemas, fast food outlets, public transport – as well as via targeted online campaigns.

The full report can be read here.

* Intelligence Update – January 2026, South Tyneside Council