Apnee Sehat Background
Apnee Sehat began in 2005 in South Warwickshire with the support of South Warwickshire Hospitals and the Primary Care Trust, National Diabetes Support Team and DH Equality Director (Surinder Sharma) in response to a community request for lifestyle support.
Apnee Sehat has involved a multidisciplinary effort by a number of organisations across traditional boundaries and has achieved national recognition for its innovative approach in supporting preventative healthcare for this target "high risk", "hard to reach" group.
Funding and sponsorship: The University of Warwick was strategically involved in supporting the development and evaluation of Apnee Sehat, raising funds for the project and has supported its development into a Social Enterprise. Apnee Sehat is thankful to its corporate sponsors who have provided charitable grants without whom progress would not have been possible.
Diabetes UK in South Warwickshire have also actively supported its development with funding for a Divali Health Calender and Medical Fairs and the Department of Health have provided grants for the development of this project as a Social enterprise.
Partnerships in the Community
The success of the Apnee Sehat project which has tapped on the ability of religious organisations to reach some of the most vulnerable groups, involved the development of innovative selfcare educational material which is culturally appropriate.
The "Our Health, Our Care, Our Say" White Paper and the development of new health policies to support community healthcare have created a no of opportunities to tackle health inequalities more effectively.
The future roll out of the Apnee Sehat model aims to innovatively redesign patient care pathways , involving new partners for access such as pharmacists in the community as it will look to signpost high risk individuals identified to appropriate preventative intervention by a number of healthcare providers in the community setting.
Apnee Sehat also aims to develop integrated healthcare models within the community using the Social Enterprise model, thus overcoming traditional barriers to specialist support for community services.
The initiative is a leading example of how partnerships amongst communities, healthcare providers, academics, and the pharmaceutical industry,charities can work together to effectively tackle health inequalities.