Having sent PMs to admin, regarding the raising of awareness of C25k, and receiving no reply, I PMd LauraStQ, who sent the following reply.
Hi Tim
thanks for getting in touch - and sorry if you've not had much response from other administrators. I know Steve, our fitness editor, has been on paternity leave for a few weeks so that may be why.
In answer to your question - I think this is a brilliant idea! I think NHS Choices would be keen to take ownership of the idea to ensure the branding is consistent. They could then make it available on the site for GP practices to download and print. Leave it with me and I'll raise it at tomorrows weekly meeting. I'm sure everyone will agree its a top idea
Laura
At least we are making contact with people who can possibly move this on. I will keep you posted should I hear anything else.
Regarding my email to my local GP practice, I discovered that the email link on the practice website does not work, so it was returned to me. I hope this is not symptomatic of the NHS in general!! So I will print out a good old fashioned letter and deliver it by hand.
Many thanks to OldNed, who has drafted a concise, and I think effective, letter to Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Health, which is at healthunlocked.com/couchto5... .
It would probably be best if we hold fire on sending these out until we have heard back from NHS Choices, to see if any revisions are necessary.
I am very much in agreement with wilmacgh’s comments, also to be found at the above address, in respect of social media being influential in many people’s lives today. Unfortunately, I am barely Facebook literate and can only look to others to pursue those avenues. Any other angles of attack that are within our scope should be considered, along with the opinions and comments of all you highly motivated running folk out there.
I could do with a good run now. Enjoy your running.
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I get frustrated when I watch programmes like Embarrassing bodies, and other diet/health programmes, where I think a huge push could be included with the advice given. I'm sure some of our successful members could vouch for the programme!
Hi, runsandknits, I was trying to find out from my local practice if they are aware of the existence of C25k, and if so, whether they promote it in any way, to both the practice staff and the patients. We are just generally trying to raise the profile of C25k, initially with a poster campaign, then hopefully with social media and maybe local press and media. Your insights, from the coal face, would be invaluable, as the structures within the health service are a mystery to most of us.
I'd say that it is really individual to each GP even within a surgery whether they will even be aware of C25K. Its certainly not something that is "top of the radar" as such.
I'd also say its hard to promote C25K within the GP setting as a GP - it would be difficult to talk about a patient's individual health needs and exercise preference in the time allotted and the time is more than taken up by explaining the concept of moderate exercise 30mins 5x a week to be honest.
I think it could really be advertised though with poster/leaflet campaigns in waiting areas and a simple print out leaflet that could be handed out by GPs in a consultation for patients to read about could be really really useful. I personally tend to tell people to look on the NHS choices website at it, but I think if I could quickly print something out it would be far more effective.
There is definitely a role for its more active promotion in nurse led weight loss/hypertension clinics and that could be worth exploring.
Ultimately I'm afraid unless promoting NHS c25K became part of the pay performance/target system the government has for GPs you won't get an awful lot of interest from GPs given all the other demands on time etc.
In summary if I were looking at increasing awareness through GPs surgerys I would look at a) sending free posters/leaflets for use in waiting rooms b) pdf self-printable info leaflet online that could be handed out by nurses/GPs easily c) targeting practice nurses
Hope that helps! Any specific questions on issues that I haven't thought of please feel free to ask!
Posters/leaflets are what I initially had in mind and Laura's response makes it sound as if NHS Choices might produce something which could be printed off from their site. Thanks for the advice, I am sure we will be back to you.
Thanks for this. It's a helpful reply from Laura (as we should have expected of course!!). I agree that we should hold off from doing anything else until she reports back. It's also useful to have the GP perspective, even if I did feel slightly depressed by the situation described.
They've now got a tie-in C25K app with Change4Life, still with Laura, but with your own music. You can find it just by searching Change4Life. It might not be much, but I feel that the association with a large, recognisable campaign might help to up the profile.
runsandknits said:" it would be difficult to talk about a patient's individual health needs and exercise preference in the time allotted and the time is more than taken up by explaining the concept of moderate exercise 30mins 5x a week to be honest. "
Which brings me back to an earlier point I made, running is not going to be for everyone, but one of a range of activities we could help encourage. If we C25K-ers are thinking of doing some promotional activities to get the media involved we could tag it on to the 5x50 Challenge The 5x50 was inclusive and was aiming to get everyone (including families) doing 30 minutes of exercise each day.
In many parts of the country there were activities on launch day of the challenge and in my local area this was broadcast live on the radio.
Someone in an earlier thread here at HU spoke about having regional ambassadors, 5x50 have these, or at least have some and will be looking for volunteers for the 2014 challenge. C25K-ers could offer help in their area if they wish to be involved.
Just a small encouragement, I found out about C25k from the nurse at my GP surgery. I was there for routine screening and mentioned I would like to do more exercise and she showed me the choices website and where to find the link.
I think targeting practice nurses is a really good idea and as an ex health visitor I think they are worth targeting too, all those mums with young kids desperate to get out and do some form of exercise!
I've just been listening to "Inside Health" on Radio 4. It may be worth a listen on the I player. They have been talking about obesity not in relation to dieting or exercising but towards the end they gave some time (2seconds) to listeners' feedback. Wouldn't it be good if we could get them interested in featuring C25k & even better if we could get them to read some of our members' experiences? The wide age range, health problem & starting fitness of our members still amazes me. There are those, I'm sure, eloquent enough to enthuse them. (This may be wishful thinking on my part.) If we could get them interested then a good researcher would get in touch with GPs' practices. Have a listen & see what you think.
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