Following on from the successful Active Ageing Seminar last year, Vida Wellness, in conjunction with the BHF National Centre for Physical Activity and Health, Later Life Training and HUR Fitness had another fun-packed and information full day!

In the morning we focussed on reaching out to our target and marketing our services. In the afternoon we looked at successful programme delivery and client retention.

See the full programme and speaker details including photos of the day and the presentations available to download by visiting the Vida Wellness website.

Seminar brought to you by Vida Wellness & the BHF National Centre for Physical Activity & Health. Event Sponsors: Later Life Training and HUR Fitness.

Later Life Training, in conjunction with Glasgow Caledonian University and the British Heart Foundation National Centre for Physical Activity and Health (BHF NCPAH), have put together an awareness raising tool that can be used freely in order to:

• Highlight the new Physical Activity Guidelines with older people
• Highlight the importance of the components of fitness, particularly strength and balance
• Use as a motivational tool to engage older people in programmes and activities

The Functional Fitness MOT is a person-centred tailored tool, that utilizes normal data sets for a number of different functional tests that highlight components of fitness. The results of these tests can be used to discuss the different components of fitness, highlight the individuals strengths and weaknesses in the different components of fitness and then allow discussion around the person’s needs and preferences in order that local opportunities can be encouraged in order to facilitate active ageing.

The toolkit (downloadable) includes:

• A presentation on the Functional Fitness MOT as an awareness raising tool including some thoughts on who could do them, how to organise the event and how to advertise the event
• A handout that can be personalised (last page) with local opportunities and programmes in your area
• A set of protocols for the tests that can be used
• A set of circuit cards to set up your awareness raising event
• A weight/height conversion chart
• An example of a poster to advertise your event

The BHF NCPAH are currently working on a new design of these resources, but meanwhile, please help yourself and make use of these in as many ways as you can to ensure we get the message out about the new Physical Activity Guidelines for Older People and the need for strength and balance work and to avoid long periods of sedentary behaviour in older people.

Let us know how you get on by leaving a comment below…..

Do you work in the care sector? Could you get your residential setting involved? Go 4 Gold challenges go live!

Go for Gold offers a choice of 5 physical activity challenges. Participants can do just one element
or have a go at all of them.

Later Life Training are proud to be active supporters. Visit the NAPA website to register and find out more about the Go 4 Gold challenges with nursing home residents on 4th July and how you can get involved!

The British Heart Foundation National Centre for Physical Activity and Health have launched a freely downloadable physical activity evidence briefing. This briefing, written by our very own Bob Laventure, highlights useful information regarding the new physical activity guidelines for older people launched by the four nationals Chief Medical Officers last year.

This evidence briefing is designed for professionals who require a detailed review of the evidence base available for physical activity in older adults.

Information is included on:

Physical and psychological outcomes of physical activity
Sedentary behaviour and health outcomes
Current levels of physical activity
Current levels of sedentary behaviour
Factors affecting participation in physical activity
Public health guidelines for physical activity
Interventions to increase physical activity
Implications for practice

Download the briefing from their website.

INSTRUCTORS NEEDED TO TEACH EXERCISE CLASSES FOR OLDER ADULTS
4th April 12

The Herts Sports Partnership is looking for experienced exercise leaders to teach Seated Exercise classes and OTAGO Strength and Balance classes to adults aged 65 years + who have had or are at risk of falling.

The partnership currently runs 20 classes per week across Hertfordshire and will soon be expanding this to 30 classes per week.

Suitable candidates will have experience of teaching exercise classes to older adults and an empathy and understanding of the needs for this age group.

Qualifications:
Essential: Level 3 REPs, First Aid
Desirable: OTAGO Exercise leader, GP Exercise Referral, YMCA Level 3 Exercise & Ageing

Please contact Joe Capon to find out further information on 01707 281004 or email j.capon2@herts.ac.uk

For further information about the Herts Sports Partnership, visit www.sportinherts.org.uk

Later Life Training are proud to announce the Otago Home Exercise Programme for Strength and Balance Audio package is now available.

Suitable for anyone with visual impairment who needs a little extra help, or for anyone who would like an audio prompt to guide them through the exercises each day, these audio packages have been tailored to suit you.

Presented by a professional qualified Otago Exercise Programme Leader these audio guides take you through each and every exercise with .mp3 playlists for different levels of ability. The idea is to either buy a CD or download the files, then you get all files individually and also four playlists. You can burn the individual playlists (beginners, intermediate and making progress and advanced) to CDs as required so that your clients/patients get one set of exercises on their CD.

Click here to find out more. They can be used in conjunction with the freely downloadable home exercise booklet

We aim to help you in your practice, so let us know what you think so far. Also keep an eye out for the Otago DVD due out soon

Last week the Royal College of Physicians published a new audit on exercise provision in falls services across the UK. Some of the findings were, unfortunately, not unexpected!

This survey was commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) and carried out by the Royal College of Physicians’ Clinical Effectiveness and Evaluation Unit (CEEU). It follows on from concerns raised in an earlier programme of work looking at older people’s experiences of falls prevention services in general and complements the findings from the recent report of the national audit of falls and bone health audit in older people 2010. The aim of the project was to obtain patients’ experiences of NHS run therapeutic exercise programmes to reduce falls. The patient questionnaire was supplemented by a survey of staff involved in the delivery of therapeutic exercise.

First, the good news!

• Over 1,700 older people who had attended an NHS-run exercise programme to reduce falls shows that 96% felt the exercises were either beneficial or quite beneficial, and 95% were either satisfied or very satisfied with their exercise programme.

Now, the not so good news!

The implementation of evidence-based exercise interventions by healthcare providers is incomplete and varies widely.   Overall, the types of exercises prescribed appear appropriate however, the frequency, intensity and duration of most programmes are low and do not appear to meet recommended guidance:

• 86% of staff report low frequency of their exercise classes (once per week), well below recommended guidance.
• Only 29% of patients returning questionnaires used ankle weights for targeted resistance training to reduce falls.
• Only 52% of patients felt their exercise programme had been progressed.
• 81% of patients attending a class indicated that this had lasted 12 weeks or less.
• 73% of patients supervised at home indicated that their programme lasted for 3 months or less.

Not all staff delivering the exercise programmes to reduce falls are appropriately trained.  Only 54% of sites had staff who had completed Postural Stability Instructor training and 41% of sites had staff who have completed Otago training.

Evidence shows older people are more likely to continue exercising in a class than on their own at home. However, responses from staff show there is lack of long term follow-up classes in the community that patients can attend. 9% of participating sites had no classes they could encourage patients to attend at the end of their NHS-run exercise programme and only 53% had two or more classes and many of these were not evidence based.

Key recommendations

• Commissioners need to commission a local, integrated exercise continuum across health and local authorities/voluntary sector to ensure long term provision of evidence-based exercise programmes for reducing falls run by appropriately qualified staff.

• The quality of training and delivery of exercise programmes for reducing falls needs to be monitored locally and nationally against the evidence base for delivering effective exercise programmes to reduce falls.

Dr Jonathan Treml, Consultant Geriatrician, University Hospitals Birmingham and RCP Associate Director for the National Audit of Falls and Bone Health said:

‘The right type of exercise is the single most effective way of reducing the risk of falls in older people. It is concerning that many local NHS services appear to provide exercise programmes that are of insufficient duration or intensity to assure benefit to this vulnerable group.’

If you want to download the full report, click here.
So, all you PSIs and OEPs out there, make sure your local falls services are aware of this report and that they have the ability to refer onto your evidence based community classes!

Dawn, with a colleague Sebastien Chastin, at Glasgow Caledonian University, have submitted a letter to the British Medical Journal in response to an article. We are reminding people that the new physical activity guidelines for older people include reducing the amount of time they spend sitting (sedentary). Help us get this letter published in the BMJ by clicking on this link, reading the brief letter, and hopefully click LIKE next to the article

We also want you to contribute to the sedentary behaviour debate. There is a blog site we would like you to visit. The purpose is to develop a classification system and nomenclature as universal as possible to allow research across the life span, be as inclusive as possible and that is meaningful to and understood by all field of research and the general public.

Therefore we seek you opinion in identifying domains and a structure for the classification that will allows refinement to increase specificity for special populations and settings. We have set up a website to facilitate this process online. We would be most grateful if you could spare a few moments to register with “SIT: Sedentary behaviour International Taxonomy” to take part in this consensus. This consensus survey follows a Delphi protocol (all the details are on the website) and runs concurrently to the development of a folksonomy (layman classification) of sedentary behaviour.

We are collecting opinion from all people involved in sedentary behaviour research from measurement scientist to those involved in interventions. So please pass this email onto colleagues who might be interested or whose opinion needs to be heard.

Could you also forward the link to the folksonomy to as many people as possible – http://tinyurl.com/cba3yt8

Many thanks

Dawn

FRESH – Fun, Relevant activities to build Energy, Strength and a Healthy balance system

A new website giving information to older people about activities that improve balance and strength. It is currently gathering data for a research trial on the provision of information on the web – but will stay online after the research has finished. Why not point people in the direction of the site and see if we can improve strength and balance in those not coming to our classes!

Visit the website.

Age UK Redbridge has been selected as the sole pilot site in the UK for the new ‘Get Up and Go’ Postural Stability Instructor led falls prevention exercise programme.

We are looking for qualified Postural Stability Instructors to help take this exciting project forward.

The successful candidates will be keen to develop classes at a variety of venues in Redbridge and Barking and Dagenham over the next three years.

An eagerness to work with groups of older people of a variety of abilities including people with Dementia will be essential.

The ability to provide detailed records of outcomes is necessary to the success of the project.

If you are keen to be a part of this exciting project contact Tina Sinclair on 020 8220 6000 or e mail her on tina.sinclair@ageukredbridge.org.uk for more information.