The Let’s Get Physical! campaign went into top gear today when service users and carers took part in a badminton marathon at our event in Hafal’s WOTS project, Wrexham.
Sharon Bryan, a service user from Wrexham, said: "We wanted to do a badminton marathon because almost anyone can play and it’s really fast and fun, great for the responses and coordination. And because it’s a cardio exercise it’s good for fitness.
"There’s a community aspect to badminton, too: if you join a club it really improves your social life. There are clubs across Wales. Cost may be an issue for some people as joining a club can be quite expensive, but you can always take part in pay-and-play sessions and equipment isn’t as expensive as other sports."
At today’s event visitors also had the opportunity to have health checks in the Mobile Health Centre, enjoy fruit kebabs supplied by the local CMHT and take part in a drumming session.
Hafal Practice Leader Karen Edwards said: "We’re continuing to Get Physical! throughout the summer and beyond with our new WOTS this Step walking club. We’ll be wearing our Let’s Get Physical! pedometers to monitor how far we go. Hopefully we’ll rack up millions of steps as the club progresses!
"With the walking club we wanted to provide an example of service users and carers creating opportunities for physical activities themselves in a specialist mental health service. But the badminton is a perfect example of how service users and carers can access general services in the community to improve their physical health."
Our Wrexham clients and staff have got this exactly right by working on two fronts - and watch out for our final report from the campaign which will include a guide for all mental health services showing how to promote physical health both within their service and by helping clients engage outside their service in non-mental-health facilities.
Both approaches are vital and Karen and company, not for the first time, are showing the way!
