The power of exercise

Here I am on one of my walks -
doing my best not to fall off!

I’m just back from a week’s holiday and feeling refreshed and reinvigorated, after a pretty full-on time moving house and ploughing through those never-ending ‘to do’ lists.

While this ‘holiday refresh’ might conjure up an image of sun-loungers, cafes and cocktails, it was actually pretty active. My kind of tonic is a week of cycling, walking and climbing (the gin is added in later!).

They say exercise is the most underused anti-depressant and it certainly works for me. It’s my stress and anxiety reliever and can change my mood, my attitude and my perspective on life.

I’m also really aware of the benefits that physical exercise can bring to our mental health and learning disability patients. Exercises, including gardening, walking and dancing, as well as jogging, swimming and cycling, have been proven to reduce anxiety and depression. We serve a vulnerable group of people, for whom their mental health and learning disability often results in very poor physical health,  and the evidence suggests that exercise can be an often-neglected intervention in improving their mental and emotional well-being.

As a specialist, expert organisation, we need to always focus on the whole person and recognise, as a minimum, the value of physical health checks and people’s access to activity. One of the many positive things our community colleagues contributed was support around physical health - they were superb in advising and supporting us with the physical health needs of our mental health and learning disability patients and service users. Now, as we re-focus as a mental health and learning disability trust, we need to remember that responsibility still remains with us.

So it’s great to hear lots of examples within the organisation of people developing their skills in supporting people’s physical health needs. For example, Heathfield House rehab unit in Stockport have recently had a sports day and football match. We also have a developing initiative called ‘Climb to Thrive’ - a volunteer club  that Reagan Blythe, who supports R&D within the Trust, has set up - which supports people to use rock climbing as a way of building purpose and confidence.

This week, I visited North Ward in Bury and heard how the staff there are supporting people with increasingly complex and demanding physical health needs. This must be challenging for mental health practitioners, who came into the service to support people in their mental health recovery journey, to find themselves having to deal with complex medical conditions. But I was impressed with how the ward are managing this, with staff developing their skills and building their relationship with acute colleagues on the Fairfield Hospital site to deliver mutual support to each other.

I was also impressed by the exercise facilities available to patients, including table tennis and snooker tables, an indoor and outdoor gym and even a five aside football pitch. It’s great that people on the unit have such good places to exercise.

I am very grateful to ward manager Nicola Kidd, who has recently taken on the role substantively, and Dr Adeola Akinola, consultant on the unit, for giving up so much of their time to show me around, and for their passion and commitment. It’s clear the ward is benefitting from their leadership and that, despite the challenges, every one there has put a lot of effort over the last few years into team development and creating a positive environment for both patients and staff.

I know all of our jobs can take their toll, both physically and mentally. So, at the risk of sounding a bit evangelical, I’m sure we can all get something from whatever exercise floats our boat.  Of course, it doesn’t have to mean running marathons or training every day at the gym, and it certainly shouldn’t be a monotonous or painful punishment. But my motto when I am not feeling motivated to move more is ‘do something, do anything but sit’. As one of the women in the brilliant This Girl Can campaign says, “I know I’m slow, but I’m lapping everyone on the couch”.

We run a ‘Couch to 5k’ programme and regularly promote things like bike schemes, gym deals, local park runs and other activities, but research also shows that leisure activities, like gardening, can be as beneficial as a workout. Of course it’s not always easy, but it’s always worth it. After all, our body is the only place we always have to live in.

Best wishes,
Claire