Mental health is everyone’s business. There’s a stigma attached to mental health problems. This means that people feel uncomfortable about them and don’t talk about them much.

Enable Leisure and Culture, in partnership with Wandsworth Council are helping raise awareness of World Mental Health Day (WMHD), 10 October, by celebrating the many health and wellbeing activities and programmes that have been taking place in borough.

‘Sport and physical activity has a powerful and positive effect on mental health.’ Sport England

Over the past three years the Active Wellbeing programme has been running in the borough working with adults with severe mental health conditions. The bespoke, one-to-one physical activity programme is set up to engage adults who suffer with severe and enduring mental conditions including psychosis, schizophrenia, and bi-polar disorder. Through the programme, participants are provided with tailored one-to-one exercise support, funded by Wandsworth’s Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and delivered by Enable Leisure and Sport, in partnership with Brent, Westminster and Wandsworth Mind (WWM).

It has been identified that people with severe mental health conditions have a 20 year lower life expectancy than the general population, largely attributed to cardiovascular conditions. Active Wellbeing aims to get participants physically active to reduce their risk of cardiovascular diseases.

Participants work with the same Exercise Instructor over 10 weeks with a programme tailored to each individual, this includes the time of day, venue/location, type of exercise and intensity. As the exercise activity can happen anywhere in the borough, many prefer to exercise outside in one of Wandsworth’s tranquil parks and open spaces.  To date, 172 participants have taken part in the programme, 33% being categorised as having ‘Low’ activity levels at the start of the programme, dropping to 12% by the end of 10 weeks, and just 18% by 6 months.

‘The average mental wellbeing score increased by 18% by the end of the 10 sessions. An improvement remained even after twelve months – 13% increase from initial score,’

Those who took part, worked on increasing their activity, improving their confidence, boosting their self-esteem, and engaging with other forms of health and wellbeing, supporting residents to address other unhealthy behaviours. Participants frequently report feeling healthier overall, including sleeping better and improved mood and motivation to try other new things.

This unique project was designed with Dr. Coffey, the Mental Health Lead GP for Wandsworth, who wanted to create a bespoke programme removing the barriers to exercise for adults with severe mental health issues. The main barrier facing people with severe mental health issues is low motivation. Exercise Instructors began working across the borough to help motivate and support participants to remove as many barriers as possible. It has brought together mental health workers, and exercise professionals. Many of the mental health workers didn’t know where or how to access services, since improving relationships between key organisations, Enable Leisure and Culture has been able to promote a wide range of opportunities to them.

The council’s health spokesman Cllr Paul Ellis said: “Enable have been doing some fantastic work to promote good mental health through activity and culture. We know that being active and keeping engaged with your community is key to improving well-being, and we will continue to work with Enable and other partners to commission and provide projects and services that support people with mental health needs.”

You can be referred to the Active Wellbeing programme by a mental health professional, through support groups or self-referral by contacting Enable Leisure and Culture directly, as a participant of the programme you will meet with a professional to assess your physical or mental health conditions and anything the Exercise Instructor should be aware of, followed by an initial assessment with a mental health professional, and an Exercise Instructor.

An Active Wellbeing participant said: ‘I had been suffering from depression and anxiety for many years. After just 10 sessions of personal training with Annamaria I have felt so much increased self-confidence and reduced feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. My mood has improved tremendously, and I can finally concentrate on my studies without getting distracted by my own thoughts. My sleep is better quality and more regular than ever before. I wish I had put my mind at ease through tailored training with Annamaria long ago. She was able to adapt to my mood and understand what level of exercise I wished to do in each separate session.’

Case study:

AH is a typical client, he was inactive and sedentary before starting the programme – no vigorous or moderate activity and 19 hours of sitting per weekday. At the end of the programme, he had adopted 1 hour of moderate activity twice a week, reduced his sedentary behaviour to 6 hours per day and increased his walking to 45minutes per day. Additionally, his mental wellbeing scores increased by 8.6%, although he still experiences episodes of anxiety. The programme has also inspired AH to focus on other areas of his wellbeing, including healthy eating. ‘I have pushed myself hard & done my best, I feel proud of myself!’

The council’s health spokesman Cllr Paul Ellis said: “Enable have been doing some fantastic work to promote good mental health through activity and culture. We know that being active and keeping engaged with your community is key to improving well-being, and we will continue to work with Enable and other partners to commission and provide projects and services that support people with mental health needs.”

Getting outdoors

‘Sport and physical activity has a powerful and positive effect on mental health.’ Sport England

Wandsworth’s parks and open spaces play a huge part in positive mental health, Enable Leisure and Culture manages over 350 hectares of green places in Wandsworth on behalf of the Council.

There are 32 public parks in the borough, many of which feature leisure facilities such as Tooting Bec Athletics Track, Tooting Common; Battersea Park Millennium Arena, Battersea Park; Barn Elms Sports Centre and Barn Elms Boat House, Barn Elms all of which allow users to take full advantage of outdoor facilities such as running tracks, tennis courts and beach volley ball. Click here for a list of sports facilities.

Free exercise in parks and open spaces

View all the different places to exercise in a park or open space in the borough.

Trim trails and outdoor gym equipment are available in several parks and are free for anyone to use.

If you wish to offer your services as a personal trainer or fitness trainer in any parks you must apply for a permit to hold your activities. To apply for a permit, contact idverde on 020 8767 1830.

Get Active Wandsworth Festival

Get Active Wandsworth Festival, organised by Enable Leisure and Sport on behalf of Wandsworth Council toured around the borough allowing residents to take part in different physical activity challenges in parks and open spaces.

The event was a huge success with live music performances, mouth-watering food and appearances from local companies including housing developers, Redrow and Regenerate Youth.

The free family event inspired people to get active and live a healthy lifestyle. Hundreds of providers from all over Wandsworth attend the festival to showcase the very best that the Borough has to offer in sport and physical activity

Arts and Culture

Wandsworth Arts Fringe 2018 played an integral part in improving residents and visitor’s mental health and wellbeing. This year, Espirit Concrete, bought audiences a parkour, dance and storytelling performance to explore issues around mental health and personal struggle.

An audience member said: ‘Brave piece to make the audience feel uncomfortable, as well as showing female strength: emotional, mental and physical.’

Sound Minds, part funded by Wandsworth Council’s, Wandsworth Grant Fund, was a week-long open house, installation event, taking temporary residence within a vacant space within the Winstanley estate. The main focus of the project was to improve people’s mental health and wellbeing through the arts. Local people were invited to contribute to site-specific artworks, work alongside resident artists and musicians, to use music, words and art to celebrate life on the estate at this time of change.

An audience member said: ‘Insightful exhibition – thanks to the artists for taking the time to speak with me sharing your experiences. I’ve learnt much about Sound Minds and the work they do to improve mental health in our community – a much needed resource.’

World Mental Health Day

The World Health Organisation recognises World Mental Health Day on 10 October every year.

The day provides an opportunity “for all stakeholders working on mental health issues to talk about their work, and what more needs to be done to make mental health care a reality for people worldwide”. This year’s theme set by the World Federation for Mental Health is young people and mental health in a changing world.

Being mentally healthy doesn’t just mean that you don’t have a mental health problem.

If you’re in good mental health, you can:

• make the most of your potential
• cope with life
• play a full part in your family, workplace, community and among friends.

There’s a stigma attached to mental health problems. This means that people feel uncomfortable about them and don’t talk about them much. Many people don’t even feel comfortable talking about their feelings. But it’s healthy to know and say how you’re feeling.

Contact Helplines

Other mental health services include Talk Wandsworth offering confidential support for people experiencing common mental health conditions such as anxiety, low mood and stress. It offers face-to-face counselling and group sessions in a range of venues, as well as providing online help 24/7 via Skype and online mental health services SilverCloud and ieso.

It is also free for Wandsworth residents to access Big White Wall – a safe, anonymous online service for people experiencing emotional or psychological distress.

Information on local mental health services can be found on the council’s Adult Care Information Service.  If you are in urgent need of help, contact your doctor.

For a full list of leisure and sports facilities visit here.

Contact: 020 3959 0030   |   active@enablelc.org   |   www.enablelc.org/els   |   @activewands

October 9, 2018 2:52 pm

Published by Hannah Downing