During Elevate 2018 we were treated to a packed conference schedule. Rach and Sal have written their reviews of seminar sessions and here is mine.
It is always a pleasure to listen to Sir Muir Gray CBE, public health expert and director of Better Value Healthcare, and I wasn't going to miss his update and proposal on a National Activity Therapy Service.
Still in love with Amazon's Alexa, Sir Muir provided an upbeat and thought provoking insight to a problem which although affects many people is relatively (?) easy to correct.
The issue is that many healthcare providers want to promote physical activity but are often unaware of the opportunities that are already in existence. The National Activity Therapy Service aims to provide a one stop shop where services can be accessed.
Sir Muir provided many hints that help encourage an older person to be active. In fact when quizzed recently on the tube Sir Muir commented that he was in training - for his 80's.
Sir Muir tackled the information often received by patients from GP's and used his own blood report as an example. Stating that Dr. Muir would not understand the information let alone Mr. Muir, calling for information to be clear and relevant to the intended audience.
We firmly support the aims of the National Activity Therapy Service and look forward to connecting our current network of over 350 services when plans develop. A huge thanks to Sir Muir and his ever constant support to the physical activity sector.
If you are currently running a referral based physical activity programme then you can explore some of our recommendations by downloading our 'Three Key Things' resource here.