Case study: Enhancing community engagement during COVID-19 in Western Sydney - an equity engagement model

Western Sydney has a population of approximately one million people. Half (46.8%) of the population is born overseas and speaks a language other than English at home, including over 120 other languages (WSLHD 2022). Culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities in Western Sydney were disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, particularly during the Delta wave. Communities had high rates of COVID-19 infection and issues such as social isolation and financial insecurity led to lockdown breaches. High levels of mental fatigue and social stress were present in the community.

To support local COVID-19 communication interventions among CALD communities, Western Sydney Local Health District developed and applied an equity engagement model. It used an equity lens with the aim of reducing COVID-19 spread and providing practical and timely health and wellbeing support for the local community. It was used at key stages of the pandemic to produce Western Sydney-appropriate materials, beyond simple translations. These included a Healthy at Home toolkit (August–October 2021); living well after lockdown information (October–January 2022); and managing COVID-19 at home advice (February–April 2022).

Key aspects of the model included listening and gathering information about target audiences (for example, evidence from public health units, dialogue with contact tracers, surveys and interviews); rapid community consultation to identify needs; co-design and testing of materials; messaging delivered by trusted and credible sources; tailored and multichannel dissemination; and evaluation to determine impacts and modification requirements.

Another key feature of the model was engagement with internal and external partners, including Resilience NSW, the Department of Communities and Justice, community champions, local councils, schools and early childhood education centres, Western Sydney Local Health District Aboriginal Health, Corporate Communications, Multicultural Health, Translation Services, Youth Health, the Multicultural Health Communication Service, NSW Health and Multicultural NSW.

Evaluation demonstrated high levels of engagement with materials and increased reach via strengthened partnerships over time. For example, living well after lockdown content reached over 2 million people via NSW Health social channels and the managing COVID-19 at home guide had 589 downloads within three days of launch. The equity engagement model outputs were transferable and adopted by other local health districts and NSW Health.

Reference:

Western Sydney Local Health District (WSLHD) 2022, About us, NSW Government.