The Active Wellbeing service delivered by the team at Active Suffolk has had a positive impact on patients mental health and wellbeing.
Active Suffolk have formed partnerships with local social prescribers, instructors, leisure providers and health professionals to deliver the Active Wellbeing service in a number of locations across Suffolk. The positive impact this has had on patients mental health and wellbeing from one of the GP surgeries in Ipswich where this service is delivered, is clearly demonstrated in its latest evaluation.
The Active Wellbeing service, delivered by the Active Suffolk team offers support to older, inactive adults in several specific locations across the county. The partnership with social prescribing teams, such as the Connect for Health Scheme, is essential to ensure patients are fully supported no matter their needs.
A recent report from The Two Rivers Medical Practice in Ipswich demonstrates the impact the Active Wellbeing service has had on the patients mental health and wellbeing, with over half of them seeing an improvement. 59% of are people involved are now doing 60 minutes of moderate activity with a 62% of people reporting an improvement in their mental wellbeing. This is based on 3 month follow up data using the Warwick Edinburgh mental wellbeing scale.
Many of the participants benefiting from the Active Wellbeing Service have a long term medical condition although this is not part of the access criteria. The team of physical activity advisors working on the Active Wellbeing programme, support patients to access safe, local physical activity sessions or incorporate movement into their day in whatever way they can.
The team work to establish motivations and barriers to ensure advice and support is tailored depending on the individual’s needs. Sometimes functional fitness MOT’s are performed as part of the support to help identify baseline ability compared to the national average. Doing this helps provide support to the individual to set specific goals. In addition to the support Active Suffolk offer the patients, they also work with the health professionals in the surgery and the local workforce to ensure a collaborative, sustainable approach. The Two Rivers Surgery in Ipswich recently achieved their Active Practice Charter Award as a result of the partnership with ourselves and the local Most Active Counties Partnership team.
For more information about the Active Wellbeing service visit www.activesuffolk.org/the-active-wellbeing-service