TB Peer Educator Hi-Vis

TB Peer Educator Hi-Vis
09/07/2009 andy

Groundswell Timeline /2009

Courtesy of the Groundswell Archive

Groundswell’s first significant peer intervention into health came with the TB Peer Education Project in 2009. Peers went out with the Find & Treat Mobile X-Ray Unit which parked up outside hostels and day centres across London, offering to screen people for TB. The majority of peer educators had been treated for TB themselves and used this experience to encourage people to step onto the van.

The introduction of the Hi-Vis jackets made it hard to ignore when a peer came knocking on bedroom doors or stepping into the TV room in a day centre!

It was the Advisory Group for the TB Peer Education project who helped create the first funding bid for Homeless Health Peer Advocacy.

The van has now become a Mobile Health Unit – also testing for HIV, Hepatitis C and other conditions – along with providing flu vaccines. The role of peers has progressed so that they now also accompany people to follow-on appointments.