This November Active Cornwall was highly commended for the work we provide in the Parkinson’s community.
Here we explain that work and celebrate our success at the national Parkinson’s UK Excellence Network Awards.
Active Cornwall, working with Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Bodmin, entered the ‘sharing learning and education’ category.
Connect and Conquer is a health, community and charity embedded partnership programme to increase exercise and physical activity provision for people living with Parkinson’s.
This service brought together health, community and charitable organisations to share expertise and resources and also train Parkinson’s friendly providers. The goal was to get more people with Parkinson’s active.
Active Cornwall ran focus groups and workshops, in which people with Parkinson’s told us the best way to cater for their needs would be for activities to take place in the community and outside of the health sector.
Resources were limited so a free online training package was devised for activity and exercise providers in the county. The training included six mini modules designed to increase awareness of Parkinson’s; understand the condition and the symptoms; learn how best to promote and support people with Parkinson’s in a range of activities.
Following completion of the training, activity providers were nvited to enrol on a database. This is shared with the community as a resource list of ‘Parkinson’s friendly activity providers’.
In addition, partnership with local Parkinson’s UK hubs allowed us to offer up to 50% reduction in the cost of the activities for the first 12 sessions.
It was a fantastic incentive for people with Parkinson’s to try new things, make new friends and hopefully embed the activity into their regular exercise routine.
Our partnership has trained more than 50 providers now ranging from yoga, walking, surfing, dance, swimming, boxing, aerobics, climbing and many more.
‘Connect & Conquer Event‘
We have now taken this training further, running the first ever ‘Connect & Conquer Event‘ bringing the trained providers and people with Parkinson’s together in a local leisure centre to demonstrate mini taster sessions, meet each other and build peer support within local communities.
The first event was a great success, and the ambition is for this to be a twice-yearly event.
The partnership between the NHS trust and Active Cornwall has enabled us to grow a high quality, evidenced based and sustainable approach to continual training of new ‘Parkinson’s friendly providers’.
It has also built greater awareness of Parkinson’s and importance of exercise within the exercise community. Most importantly it has provided choice, opportunity, and access to a range of activities for people with Parkinson’s to self-manage their condition in a highly active and enjoyable way.
The Parkinson’s UK Excellence Network Awards
The Parkinson’s Excellence Network Awards celebrate outstanding health and social care services for people with Parkinson’s.
Since 2015, the Parkinson’s Excellence Network has been bringing together health and social care professionals to transform care for the Parkinson’s community.
The awards recognise the hard work and ingenuity of outstanding individuals, teams and services that make a difference to people with Parkinson’s, and the people who love and care for them.
This year the award categories reflected the diverse teams of professionals who support people with Parkinson’s.
Active Cornwall received a ‘highly commended’ award in the sharing and learning category.
Click here to see the highlights video of the evening.