Action packed August - Health and Social Care

The Health and Social Care sector in Calderdale is made up of several organisations and institutions. We’re working closely with a key group of organisations to find solutions that can be rolled out more widely. Here’s a summary of some recent work by these institutions.

Working on Addiction Recovery with the Basement Recovery project

The measurement of physical activity is now included within the Basement project’s initial assessment form. This means anyone coming into the service is assessed for how active they are. They are subsequently supported and encouraged as part of their treatment to be active. The five ways to well-being have also been fully implemented within the service.

We have worked with and supported the Basement project with developing a series of physical activity and sport taster session courses. This includes boxing, dance, running and yoga. The courses offer service users the chance to take part in a sport or physical activity session that is of interest to them.

In some instances such as the Boxing taster session course, the approach has been to partner with local community sports clubs to provide the taster sessions.

Working on Adult Health and Social Care with Calderdale Council

A significant change within the Adult Health and Social care system has been the inclusion of questions relating to physical activity within individual care plan assessments. Anyone going through the Adult Health and Social care system will be assessed for how active they are. There care plans will incorporate encouragement and support towards being active.

Adult Health and Social care commission specifications have been reviewed and amended to make physical activity more explicit in the service expectations and outcomes. This will ensure there is a consistent focus on physical activity from commissioner, to the provider, to the individual receiving the support.

Through the changes to the care plan assessment forms, strengths based conversations about physical activity have become routine from social care and care workers, encouraging and supporting clients to be more active.

You can listen to Iain Baines, Director of Adult’s Health and Social Care for Calderdale Council, talk about the changes we’re making in the following video:

We are also currently supporting and investing in 2 physical activity projects being delivered in care homes:

• Motitech – is a motivational technology programme which allows people in care homes to cycle in front of screens which display various destinations locally and across the world, making it feel like the individuals are cycling in these places.

• Motivation to Move – Training programme for care home staff to up-skill them to deliver physical activity to their clients.

Supporting good Mental Health with the Recovery College

The Recovery College is a community based programme for people suffering with poor mental health. We have worked with the Recovery College to include physical activity within the college prospectus, providing opportunities for people to be active as part of the journey to becoming well again.

Physical Activity levels are now routinely measured on entry into the Recovery College and after twelve weeks – raising the importance of physical activity for good mental health and providing the opportunity to measure the effectiveness of physical activity interventions.

You can find out more about the work going on at the recovery college by watching the following video.

Action packed August

We’re working across multiple sectors to turn Calderdale into the most active borough in the North by 2024. More updates of whats been happening in August:

• Work places voluntary and community

• Digital and communications update