Serious illness and bereavement affect us all, but our experiences of them are not equal. People living in the poorest areas of the UK are less likely to get the care and support they need if they become seriously ill or a loved one dies. They are also more likely to be socially isolated and lonely - which can be made even worse by serious illness or bereavement. This project is based in Weston-super-Mare, a deprived coastal town in North Somerset. Nine of its neighbourhoods are among the poorest 10% in the country. The population is growing, getting older and living with more frailty and long-term, complex health conditions. There are also high levels of mental health and addiction problems. The project team will create a strong group with a shared aim ('a consortium') that unites health and social care workers, people providing community assets (collective resources which are available to individuals and communities, e.g. arts organisations, charities and community groups), academics, and people with lived experience to work together to reduce health inequities in Weston-super-Mare and the North Somerset region. Our consortium will focus on inequities related to end-of-life care, bereavement support, social isolation and loneliness. During the 9 months of the project, we will hold 3 consortium meetings and work together to: 1. create a directory of community assets and interview key people to understand how health and social care and community assets can best work together 2. design and evaluate creative and cultural activities to be held over Dying Matters Awareness Week (DMAW, May 2023), with members of the public employed as co-researchers 3. hold creative workshops with local groups (people with drug and alcohol addiction problems, young people, and older men) to facilitate conversations about grief and illness, raise awareness of local support, and help inform our DMAW events 4. review existing evaluation data from arts/creative organisations working in Weston-super-Mare over the last 5 years (2017-2022) to identify what activities have best engaged and benefitted the community, and draw on this in designing DMAW events 5. map available health and social care data and determine how it can be used to help understand, measure and reduce inequities 6. hold a final consortium meeting to: review all our work; consider how we can apply our findings in other deprived coastal towns; and agree research questions and methods for a future joint funding application The project will benefit: 1) the Integrated Care System (ICS), strengthening their relationships with community organisations and the public in Weston-super-Mare and providing information (community asset directory, map of datasets) to enable equitable end-of-life care and bereavement support; 2) community organisations, by bringing recognition and funding (via linking with the ICS) and helping them reach more people (via linking with the consortium and awareness raising at events); 3) creative and cultural organisations, by enabling them to engage and empower local community members in an evidence-based way, providing training to artists and increasing links with the ICS and community organisations; 4) members of the public, who will learn about the care and support available to them via the ICS and community assets and benefit from opportunities to express their experiences and socialise in creative workshops, attend free events, participate as co-researchers and at consortium meetings; 5) academic researchers, by modelling new multidisciplinary, collaborative ways of creating research and building evidence about how community assets can help reduce health inequities; 6) policy makers, by making recommendations for how ICSs can best harness community assets. We will engage with these groups via consortium meetings, blogs, the project website, journal articles, reports, presentations at community/ICS events and a policy brief.

As shown by the Chief Medical Officer's 2021 report, coastal communities suffer some of the worst health outcomes in the country, and significant inequalities(1). In coastal towns, poverty, poor housing, limited opportunities and a low-wage economy(2) result in lower life expectancy and higher rates of major diseases compared to inland neighbours. Meanwhile, health services are overstretched(1). Creative community assets such as arts and culture organisations have the potential to improve lives(3), and Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) aim to integrate community assets with preventive interventions and health and social care. However, collaboration between NHS, local authorities, universities, voluntary and community sector and residents is challenging because of differences in organisational objectives, structure, and culture. We need to understand how these stakeholders can come together to improve people's health. Our approach Building on our work in Phase 2 of this funding call, we will focus on three coastal areas with poor health in different regions of England: Blackpool, Weston-Super-Mare, and Hastings. We will work together, uniting these different stakeholders, to generate an evidence-based plan to support collaboration across sectors and with the community to tackle health inequalities. We will focus on key problem areas in mental health identified by our communities: young people's mental health and wellbeing; drug and alcohol (substance) misuse; and life-limiting illness and bereavement.