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Q. Have you tried to introduce seated exercise in your care environment?
Q. Did you hit a wall of barriers on why it would be better to start tomorrow?
Q. Tomorrow arrived and – it was too hot/cold/early/late/quiet/noisy, etc?
What a completely normal reaction from ALL of us, not just those living in the care sector. It’s easier to delay implementing a new idea and especially if we’re not confident on the subject but if we understand the benefits associated with activities, it helps overcome some of the barriers.
Think about exercise or physical activity for someone living in a care setting:
• How do we know it’s appropriate?
• Who’s capable of delivering and evaluating it?
• Are the risks too great?
• What are the physical & mental challenges likely to be?
Even the most simple of daily actions/tasks can maintain or potentially improve muscle strength and flexibility. However, it can be a challenge to overcome the barriers and it can be about being flexible with your approach and looking at ways of maximising the health benefits - but remembering it needs to be fun, not a chore.
In the past there has not been much attention paid to activities, let alone physical exercise! However, with the introduction of dedicated Activity Coordinators and the inspectorate now recognising the need for and the importance of a pro-activity theme throughout the whole Home, training is gradually becoming available.
Any degree of increased independence, personal wellbeing and/or raised self esteem will have a huge impact on the life of anyone living in a care setting, so what more reason do you need to introduce seated exercise to your service users?
Two additional benefits of training care teams to deliver this type of activity is that the cost of the activity programme can be drastically reduced AND a unique person-centred service is introduced to the Home.
Tony Duke- Exercise Training Consultant with Vitalyz Ltd