Close-Up Research’s director, Elliot Manches, has been an Associate of OPM for over 10 years. He’s documented patient experiences of conditions including: cancer, COPD, PAH, MS, ITP, diabetes, chronic pain & osteoarthritis – for clients such as: NHS England, The Health Foundation, MS Society, Essex County Council, GSK, Johnson & Johnson, HFEA, Pfizer, Regeneron and Teva.

Elliot has also produced films specifically looking at BME experiences in the UK, through his not-for-profit organisation Film For Humanity. Previous projects explored the experiences of: Roma students in West London, Iraqi & Afghan refugees in Kent, and the Bengali community in East London.

Although much of our work is confidential, below is a selection of relevant health / BME examples we can share. We like to keep our equipment up-to-date, so you might notice that our older films are shot in SD or HD, whilst our latest work is in 4K.

Background:

Traditionally, local authorities determined what form of care a person with long-term conditions received, and when. However with personal health budgets, the recipient is allocated a budget directly. As such, NHS England commissioned us to find out: what are the impacts of personal health budgets? And how can the budgets be applied most effectively? We visited budget recipients across the country, each representing different demographic segments, with different long-term conditions. Our focus was on: what life was like before receiving a personal health budget; any subsequent impact on day-to-day experiences, health & relationships; and participants’ outlook for the future. The video above tells the story of Adrian, a 57-year-old Traveller recovering from cancer, as well as interviews with his personal assistant and two service providers.

Testimonial:

“You were great to work with. You’re extremely professional and really take the the time to understand our needs, balancing that effectively with providing expert advice. We’ve had great feedback from all participants, who say you asked extremely insightful questions. The quality of the case studies has been consistently high, and they’re now regularly used to help people understand the impacts of more personalised care. I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending you.”

– Senior Communications Manager, NHS England

Background:

Last year in the United States, more than 42,000 people died from overdosing on opioids. A significant number of those people started out taking prescription opioids for conditions such as chronic pain. Our client is aiming to bring a non-opioid painkiller to market, specifically for people with chronic pain and osteoarthritis. As such, they wanted to know: how does having chronic pain affect people’s lives, and what have different people’s experiences been of opioid use? To help find out, we visited people across the US, each representing a different demographic. Our focus was on: daily limitations & coping mechanisms, experience of treatments, and emotional impact. The case study above is a shortened edit telling Grace’s story.

Background:

Five million working adults without children earn less than £18,500 a year. As such, our client wanted to explore: what socio-economic barriers are faced by full-time, low-income workers? And what policy measures would reduce those barriers? We carried out ethnographic case studies with participants from different demographics, focussing on people’s experiences of: jobs and money, housing and transport, time and relationships, and consumer services. Each case study was then edited together into this single key-insights summary video, which was twice shown at the House of Commons.

Background:

The MS Society wanted to find out and document: what’s life like for people with Multiple Sclerosis, and particularly the impact on mobility? The video above features Anne-Marie, a hairdresser and single mum. It’s one in a series of films documenting life for people from different demographic across Ireland and the UK. We also filmed interviews with health care professionals who work with MS patients. The videos were incorporated into a campaign drive, managed by the global marketing agency Ogilvy.

Background:

OFGEM’s ‘Warm Home Discount’ scheme offered a range of advice and initiatives to help people, particularly low-income or ‘vulnerable’ customers, better manage their gas and electricity usage. As such, the client wanted to know: how effective has OFGEM’s ‘Warm Home Discount’ scheme been? And what would help improve its effectiveness? For these case studies, we focussed on understanding people’s: overall home life and lifestyle, household energy use, financial management, and engagement with energy advice. The video above features Rizwana, who came to Scotland from Pakistan.

Background:

The UK government is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which sets a six-week legal limit on temporary housing, and stipulates that every child has the right to grow up in a healthy environment. But thousands of children without permanent homes are growing up in B&Bs, spending months and sometimes years there. The conditions often have an adverse affect on children’s physical and mental health. We worked with several young people who have lived in temporary housing, to understand what life has been like for them, and come up with a respectful and effective way to communicate their experiences. For maximum traction, we titled the video ‘Thousand of British Children Live Like This’, and the film was shown to MPs at Westminster last October.

Background:

In the UK too many men ignore the early signs of cancer, leaving it too late to receive successful treatment. This is particularly the case with prostate cancer, which disproportionally affects men from BME backgrounds. This video is one of a series of snappy social media films Elliot directed for Men’s Health and featuring actor Samuel L Jackson.