By William Moncrieff, Communications Apprentice
May has been themed “Moving For Mental Health” by sportscotland. This is providing the sporting community with fantastic opportunities to highlight the relationship that physical activity has with improved mental health.
Get Out Get Active Tayside (GOGA Tayside), one of Scottish Disability Sports’s (SDS) partners, has been at the forefront of this ongoing pursuit, using physical activity as a resource to improve physiological and psychological wellbeing.
GOGA Tayside are delivering several classes per week in mental health wards throughout their region. These consist of two sessions per week on four wards at Murray Royal Hospital and one session per week on four wards at Carseview Centre.
Lee-Anne Herbert, GOGA Tayside instructor, often delivers these classes with the goal of providing more people with opportunities to become physically active as well as supporting the inpatients to feel confident participating in the sessions and applying the tools once discharged, which has been the case on several occasions.
Lee-Anne explains: “Physical activity plays a crucial role in personal wellbeing as it is a simple tool to help improve overall quality of life and general wellbeing. A phrase I often share with clients is Movement in Medicine.”
Lee-Anne’s classes started a little over two years ago at Moray Royal Hospital and due to their success, they have since expanded. This is seen as a huge achievement.
“Activity supports the mental wellbeing of every individual & the benefits of simple movement shouldn’t be underestimated. The more that people can get moving in some capacity, the healthier our communities will be”, said Lee-Anne.
When classes are being delivered, there is a great opportunity to provide participating patients with an opportunity to be socially interactive.
“Social interaction is a huge part of many of the sessions. The closed ward sessions that I deliver are an easy way to encourage people out of their rooms and into a supportive environment to enable peer group interaction. It’s important to be able to give that opportunity”, commented Lee-Anne.
The sessions delivered are yoga and mindfulness. These provide every participant with an opportunity to become more physically active, whilst giving them practical breathing routines that they can implement into their everyday life. This has resulted in some great feedback.
“The ward activity coordinators often tell me that clients have been using the breathing techniques that I teach when they feel under stress. In a few specific cases, staff have offered feedback that the client is much more at ease in the ward and around other people since starting the sessions”, said Lee-Anne.
She went on to say: “Every session I see a difference from how people present at the start to how they present at the end. Sometimes, it’s a simple change in how high they are holding their shoulders and sometimes there’s such a difference in their whole personality, much more relaxed and open.”
GOGA Tayside’s work has been well received by many. Their work in the Amulree wards in Moray Royal Hospital received the Mental Health Nursing Practice & the Johnathan MacLennan Excellence Awards for ‘Innovations in Improving Physical Health and Wellbeing’ at the 2023 Scottish Mental Health Nursing Forum.
If you would be Interested in finding out more about Get Out Get Active (GOGA) Tayside, and how you can get involved, please visit here.