Health

The need to encourage more active, healthy lifestyles has never been greater, we are faced with the most inactive generation of all time, this inactivity contributes to the onset of over twenty non-communicable diseases and now costs the nation £20bn per year. 

Active Partnerships are committed to helping everyone become more physically active to improve their physical and mental well-being.  Active Partnerships have a wealth of expertise and experience in developing and delivering targeted sport and physical activity interventions to enhance health and well-being. They provide a unique bridge between the health and sport and physical activity sectors, helping health commissioners use sport and physical activity to address their local health needs, and helping the sport sector to adapt and present its offer to contribute to health related outcomes and target groups - a real win-win!

Active Partnerships work closely with Local Authority Public Health teams, Health and wellbeing Boards, Clinical Commissioning groups and numerous NHS Organisations.  They can help identify the physical activity and health needs of their population, lead the production of strategies, support capacity building in the third sector, and can support the design, delivery, monitoring and review of physical activity interventions.

Through their project management experience in delivering effective interventions, their extensive network of providers, and collaboration with other Active Partnerships across England, Active Partnerships can manage the provision of a wide range of activities and services to support the prevention and treatment of ill-health. 

Case Study

Improving NHS staff and patient health and wellbeing through daily exercise

Get Physical, held at the Oxford Belfry, Milton Common, Oxfordshire in December 2015, was a pioneering half-day interactive event to share the growing evidence that physical activity can prevent or treat up to 23 long-term conditions including arthritis, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, dementia and diabetes, build confidence, reduce social isolation, and significantly contribute to improved mental health.

After an initial feasibility meeting in May 2015, the Oxford AHSN assembled a steering group, chaired by Dr Paul Durrands, which comprised its joint partners (as above), Health Education England Thames Valley, and Occupational Health from Oxford University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (NHS FT) and Oxford Health NHS FT.

With input from the AHSN Clinical Network leads and keynote speaker Dr William Bird, this group devised the Get Physical Event to involve regional healthcare and sports professionals from a broad range of specialities including primary and secondary care clinicians, nursing staff, physiotherapists, commissioners, local and regional councils, activity and service providers, industry and advisors.

The programme was planned so delegates could exchange examples of best practice and explore strategies encouraging NHS staff and patients to incorporate regular exercise into their daily lives leading to improved health and an enduring sense of wellbeing. To underline the importance of keeping active throughout the day, the event opened with 5 minutes of tai chi exercises and finished with Bollywood dancing.
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