S&PAProfessional / Summer 2020
UPFRONT S&PA NEWS
HOW A CONFIDENT TEAM HAS MADE THE MOST OF REMOTE POSSIBILITIES By Roisin Woolnough
320 Essex residents a week, and has taken on 100 new referrals. During April and May it had contacted 751 individuals under the new scheme, delivered 2,631 interventions and shared 965 home physical activity workouts. “Everyone knows we’re always a phone call away,” says Turner. Megan Potts, a Sport for Confidence occupational therapist in the Chelmsford and Southend area, says she calls new referrals for a chat and to talk about issues such as establishing a daily routine, the importance of self-care, healthy eating, rest and physical activity. They also discuss goal-setting and ways to engage with family, friends and neighbours. “We see how they are getting on, what their structure is like, and we can provide personalised interventions and videos.” Potts says there are structured physical activity Zoom sessions each day that clients can access, covering activities such as football skills, dance and fun fitness, and she is looking at setting up a sing-and-stretch class.
Sport for Confidence places health professionals and specialist coaches into leisure centres to support people who face barriers to participation in sport and physical activity. On 20 March, Covid-19 abruptly ended the organisation’s on-site work when the government announced that all leisure centres had to close. Undeterred, on 1 April, Sport for Confidence launched Stay Connected, its remote service for vulnerable adults in Essex. Through Stay Connected, Sport for Confidence has redeployed all of its occupational therapists and sports coaches to deliver an ‘at home’ service. As well as supporting existing clients, Sport for Confidence is taking referrals from 14 Active Networks, from learning disability and autism social work teams and Supported Living providers. Jake Turner, operations manager at Sport for Confidence, says the remote service has been very successful. “We are really grateful that we’ve been able to continue an adapted version of the model,” he says. “We’ve clients who normally come to our sessions once, twice or three times a week, and being able to stay in touch with them virtually has done a lot for their emotional and In touch: residents at Fenham Lodge in Hatfield mental wellbeing.” Peverel in Essex. Sport for Confidence has been able Stay Connected to stay in touch with its participants there is supporting about
MESSAGE FROM CIMSPA CEO TARA DILLON ON HOW SPORT AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY WILL EMERGE STRONGER How our world has changed since the last edition of S&PA Professional. We completed the spring issue just as the government ordered the closure of all gyms and leisure centres across the UK to halt the spread of the coronavirus, plunging the sector and its workforce into the unknown. Over the intervening three months we have worked tirelessly to support the sector through the crisis, with practical information and guidance, as well as free products and services via our new Stronger Together digital hub. This hub is providing critical support for all those working in the sector and has been made possible thanks to the generosity of a host of organisations, whose benevolence has been truly inspiring. You can learn more about it on page 12. While the end is not yet in sight, and the future still remains uncertain for many in the industry, we are gradually moving towards the recovery stage. There’s no doubt that we will emerge into a different world, one in which I’m convinced sport and physical activity will play a more critical role than at any other time in our history. Government and its medical advisors have been extolling the virtues of exercise throughout the pandemic, so now is the time to stake our claim and prove our worth.
7 www.cimspa.co.uk
6-7 Upfront - News_Summer 2020_S&PA Professional 7
29/06/2020 11:25
