Who took part?
The following shows the number of community individuals who attended focus groups and one-to-one interviews.
Number of participants in a focus group or interview.
- Focus group – 30 people
- One-to-one interviews – 55 people
- Total – 85 people
Figure 1: The self-reported gender and age range of the participants.
One individual took part in an interview and chose not to disclose demographic information; therefore, the total number of individuals reported in this graph is 84. Just under half of participants were aged 40-59 years old (48%), and 51% of participants reported being male.
Figure 2. Percentage of participants with reported multiple long-term health conditions, categorised by Somerset HDRC
As shown in Figure 2, mental health conditions were most reported by participants (38%), followed by musculoskeletal conditions (27%), learning disabilities (29%) and learning difficulties (27%). The distributions may be skewed due to our intentional recruitment of participants from specific support organisations. Notably, while the prevalence of mental health conditions, learning disabilities, and learning difficulties in our sample exceeds national averages, the self-reported rate of musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions aligns closely with national figures.
Figure 3. Percentage of participants with multiple long-term health conditions
Over 60% of participants had conditions within two or more categories.
It could have been better if I’d had a job coach with an understanding of my needs (physically and mentally) who could have helped me to find an appropriate job suited to me.
This chart excludes two participants whose health conditions were not shared. Participants may have more than one condition per health category. For example, a participant may have ADHD and dyspraxia, whilst identified as two conditions, they both come under a learning difficulty and are therefore classed as one health category.
Figure 4. Mental health diagnoses amongst 32 participants with mental health conditions
As shown in Figure 4, 50% of self-reported mental health conditions were identified as depression or anxiety.
My main barrier would be that the boss or the employees understand about my mental health conditions and driving as well. I mean I can’t drive because the medication that I’m on. The bus service where I live as well only runs every couple of hours which is not frequent enough to get to and from a job.