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The Need for Exercise on Mental Health Wards
Keeping mental health patients physically and mentally active is essential for their welfare, but with limited space, facilities and staff supervision time, that is often difficult to achieve.
Exercise is recognised as a powerful tool for decreasing stress, depression and anxiety, and can also improve mood, wellbeing and confidence. For patients, exercise can act as a therapeutic tool and have a 'normalising' effect; enabling a more enjoyable daily routine.
Studies have shown that patients on mental health wards are significantly less physically active than those in the general population. A secure mental health setting can exacerbate barriers to exercise, facilitating inactivity and both sedentary and isolating behaviour, and this creates a negative impact on mood or 'affect' too. So, for practitioners and health care assistants, finding ways to make exercise more accessible for these patients is paramount. The CardioWall offers a valuable range of benefits for patients and staff in Mental Health wards.
Convenient On-ward Exercise
The CardioWall is space efficient, so fits into any small room or corridor. Staff training for the CardioWall can be delivered in under an hour and is simple to learn. Plug-and-play enables patients to use the CardioWall independently.
Safe and Accessible
CardioWall is highly inclusive and accessible to almost all patients. The tough moulded body is robust and ligature free. The bulletproof LED pods can be isolated to confined playing zones, so focus can be given to training on a specific area.
Patient-Staff Interaction
The CardioWall is sociable, fun and facilitates healthy competition between patients and staff. Focus is put on enjoying physical and cognitive impacts of exercise, rather than therapy – which can be beneficial for patient-staff relationship building.
Relieve Stress, Improve Mood
CardioWall users widely experience significant reductions in stress and anxiety, improved mood or 'affect' and increased personal confidence. In mental health settings, this can accelerate a patient's recovery and reduce the need for medication.
Motivational Exercise
CardioWall games give players a score, allowing patients and staff to track progress and improvements over time. The exciting gameplay, lights and scores make it highly motivational for users of all ages – leading to greater enjoyment and time being active.
Sociable and Fun
CardioWall helps break down barriers to exercise and helps create a sense of achievement and purpose for users. CardioWall training can be incorporated into circuits or small-sided group activities for more sociable sessions.
"Such a fantastic product for keeping people active or fit. Using it boosts mental energy and relieves stress, improves mental wellbeing. We find it effective for working on falls prevention, wellbeing, transition into the community… there's something in it for everyone!"
- Sheffield Health and Social Care, Physiotherapy Inpatient Team
It’s something we are very pleased we purchased and would strongly recommend to other mental health sites looking for innovative ways of keeping patients healthy, happy and engaged whilst on the ward”
-Richard Hanlon, Clinical Nurse Specialist, Fulbourn Hospital
