Community Voices Group (CVG) is for Brighton and Hove residents who identify as Black, brown, Asian or from another language, ethnic or migrant community.
Members of the group talk to people in their community about what’s important to them and bring this information to meetings. The group discuss issues that matter to them and then talk directly to representatives from Brighton and Hove City Council and NHS Sussex about how they can be solved. SIS works in partnership with Bridging Change on this project through Brighton and Hove City Council’s Thriving Communities Fund.
In winter 2025 – spring 2026, CVG members’ chosen topic was Men’s Health. In order to gain a wider range of voices to bring to the CVG meetings, a SIS Bilingual Community Researcher invited 4 Turkish speaking men who live in Brighton and Hove to take part in a small group discussion about this topic. They talked about health, mental health, and issues for their community locally:
- Worries about chronic illnesses, lack of knowledge around NHS health checks, cultural differences in attitudes to treatment e.g. antibiotic use.
- Praise for quality of care from NHS but frustrations with long wait times and difficulty booking routine appointments.
- Difficulties communicating with GP receptionists and struggling to assert their right to having an interpreter booked for their appointments.
- General stress, anxiety, loneliness (especially for men living alone), and psychological issues.
- Long working hours in low wage jobs, and the impact on health and family.
- Anxiety around their future in the UK, financial issues and legal uncertainty for some.
The SIS researcher then shared some of the points raised anonymously during a meeting in spring 2026 with representatives from Brighton and Hove City Council (BHCC), UOK partnership (local mental health services), Macmillan Horizon Centre, Act on Cancer, and BHCC Stop Smoking Service. Men from other minoritised communities in Brighton and Hove also shared their experiences with the representatives listed above.
Following this, SIS sent the Turkish speaking participants a translated update along with links to useful translated videos, leaflets and other resources about some of the topics discussed:
Access to interpreting, mental health, healthcare in the UK, cancer screening, heart health, healthy lifestyle, and employment.
SIS also provided information on how to self-refer to SIS’ Bilingual Social Prescribing service. Links to translated resources on all these topics and more can be found on the Turkish Service User pages of the SIS website. Translated referral forms for interpreting and social prescribing, information about what SIS can help people with, and translated resource libraries are also available on the SIS website in 23 other languages.
