Moving stories
Creating an Active Practice - Barrowford Surgery
4 October 2024
The Pendle TaAF team presented the programme to the Pendle East Primary Care Network Leads in May 2023. This included information about the background to the programme, potential benefits, possible actions for staff, and a timetable for development to include patients too. We asked the PCN and Practice Leads to give permission to our Active Practice Champions to consult with staff and develop ideas and this was duly given.
Read about new ways of working
Social prescribing in action at Alvanley Family Practice
20 December 2022
When we started to map our community activities, with the help of our volunteer Practice Health Champions, we knew we would need a way to direct our patients to activities in a trusted way. I spoke to one of our volunteers, Dave Chorlton, who I knew had a background in print, when I talked to him in NHS speak about a directory of services, he talked about how hard done by he felt when he came away from an appointment without a prescription.
Read about social prescribing.
Group exercise instructors: healthcare’s secret weapon?
17 October 2022
If there were thousands of workers at your disposable to educate communities on the benefits of physical activity, would you want to work with them? Could they help make your healthcare job a lot easier and relieve tight budgets on the NHS? You may be surprised to learn that this workforce already exists.
Read about group exercise instructors
Helping our patients build back stronger – ‘Stronger My Way’
25 July 2022
Loss of muscle strength is one of the hidden impacts of the pandemic, albeit one that might well be noticed if you work in primary care. Decreased activity levels, and increased sedentary behaviours caused by successive lockdowns, with working from home
and the loss of everyday opportunities to strengthen, such as carrying the shopping home, all contributed.
Exercising during warm months
2 February 2022
They called it “The Big Freeze”, the coldest British winter since the late 1970s. It was 2009 and I was an F2. I was grateful to have made it to work despite driving on black ice for 31 miles. But it was more than just the weather making me miserable. My right wrist and knee were swollen and stinging. I had hardly slept the night before.
Read about exercise as recovery
Active Advent 2021
31 January 2022
One of the network of Active Practices, Chorley Surgery, near Preston, got the jump on the usual New Year’s resolution with a brilliant idea – Active Advent! When the PAL team heard about it we had to share it with you all - a fun way to keep moving and
smiling through the winter. Over to Dr Hamish Grant to explain more.
Active commuting: promoting physical activity beyond the consulting room
19 January 2022
My bicycle juddered beneath me on the bumpy, potholed tarmac of a narrow country road in rural County Down, Northern Ireland. Despite the unpredictable road surfaces, my active commute to and from work by bike is one of the highlights of my day.
Standing up desks for clinics
5 January 2022
Standing desks seem to be an ever-growing trend. Until recent years these were something either unheard of, because ‘Don’t all desks stand up?’, or perhaps synonymous with a quirky Silicon Valley start up. Now, though, they’re seemingly popping up (excuse the pun) like wildfires.
Run Talk Run: alternative therapy
22 December 2021
Have you ever got your heart rate up when not feeling your best? Perhaps you went for a walk or jog. No doubt you felt better for it after. That’s because exercising releases those ‘’happy hormones’’- endorphins. These lift our mood, help us de-stress, and help us sleep better. That sense of achievement in completing some often evaded physical activity gives us confidence that we can do it, which in turn lifts our self-esteem. If these outcomes were the effects of a tablet it would no doubt be highly sought after.
Active Practice in action
21 September 2021
Dr Hussain Al-Zubaidi discusses how Clarendon Lodge Medical Practice's Active Practice journey took them from a simple idea to starting a physical activity community and lifestyle commitment.
Read about Clarendon Lodge Medical Practice