"If the effects of exercise could be bottled it would be the medicine of the century" ... but, it only works 'if people take the pill'
We are delighted to be working in an exciting collaborative partnership with Active Oxfordshire and LEAP (the Active Partnerships for Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire respectively) and the NHS Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Prevention Group to deliver a Sport England funded Workforce Innovation Project that we have called the 'Active Medicine Programme'
The World Health Organisation (WHO) states: ‘It is clear that if health professionals prescribe exercise or provide counselling on physical activity, their patients will be more active’
The Aim of this project is to:
- Increase levels of physical activity in those patients currently inactive or with low levels of activity through positive interactions with health care professionals
- In health care professionals:
- Raise the understanding of the IMPORTANCE of physical activity in disease prevention and management and
- Improve CONFIDENCE for promoting and discussing Physical Activity
- Learning: what works and what doesn't; how to deliver at scale; how to transfer best practice
The Programme Objectives are to:
- Identify, develop and deliver upskilling and support to key health staff ('the workforce') around Physical Activity (PA)
- Develop training around behaviour change for PA, greater knowledge of the benefits of PA and signposting specifically in relation to PA
- Develop (and collate) on-line and offline resource materials
- Develop a process for accurate signposting to PA opportunities
- Develop a hub for staff to share experiences and best practice and for evaluation and measurement of impact
- Ensure integration and use of resources already available (Moving Medicine, MECC, Clinical Champions for example).
- Share learning across the network
Links to key source documents:
Original Funding Bid Summary (Powerpoint, 2.3 Mb)
Full Sport England Workforce Innovation Funding Bid (MS Word, 92 Kb)
Active Medicine Prog. Proposal for stakeholders January 2020 (PDF, 361 Kb)
Programme Manager
Casey Dunlop joined the team in October 2019 as the Active Medicine Programme Manager for Active Medicine.
Casey was previously part of the NHS, working on implementing the Making Every Contact Count Programme across Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West. Prior to this Casey was part of Public Health England and Cancer Research UK, supporting projects that aim to communicate lifestyle factor information to the public and create behaviour change. Casey studied Biomedical science at Warwick University and Public Health at Imperial College London.
You can contact Casey at casey.dunlop@getberkshireactive.org
Learning Hub
As part of the Active Medicine Programme, a new Healthcare Professional learning hub has been created. This hub details the training offer available through the Active Medicine Programme as well as collating together the existing resources available including through the PHE Moving Healthcare Professionals programme, Moving Medicine, Health Education England and more.
