Stress Awareness Month: Get Out Get Active Nottingham
Stress Awareness Month takes place every April and has since it first launched in 1992. Throughout this period of time, teams of experts aim to increase public awareness about stress. This includes highlighting the causes of stress, the negative effects stress can have on the mind and body, and how to relieve stress.
Get Out Get Active (GOGA) supports disabled and non-disabled people to enjoy being active together. Funded by Spirit of 2012, all partners are focused on getting some of the UK's least active people moving more through fun and inclusive activities. Here, Nottingham talk about their yoga activities and its improvement to participants’ mental health.
Most people will experience stress at some point in their life, but constant or extreme stress is bad for both the mind and body. Stress can be caused by a sudden traumatic event or even just the expectations of daily life.
If left unchecked, stress can be deadly — in fact, stress is often referred to as the “silent killer” because although its effects are not immediately apparent, it can lead to a number of serious health problems such as high blood pressure and heart disease. Many people have found being active a way to improve stress levels.
Yoga activities in Nottingham
As part of the Get Out Get Active Nottingham project the team is continuing to develop a range of yoga activity. To date they have run three blocks of yoga in different locations with great participant engagement feedback. Participants include members of the local community, school parents and individuals currently receiving support with their mental health.
The setting of these three blocks varied for each session. One took place at Ambleside Primary School in Aspley by instructor Teresa Towle, another in a communal room at Denton Green Training Centre, Broxtowe. The third at Highbury Hospital, which provides Adult Mental Health services, both led by instructor Valentina Paonessa.
Through consultation with a range of community groups and partners, they identified the need for low impact entry-level activity. It could be a tool to engage inactive people and provide an environment for disabled and non-disabled people to be active together. Yoga was an activity that was mentioned continually both as something individuals had always wanted to try and as something they felt able to have a go at.
As part of the GOGA Nottingham project, they have been engaging with various local organisations and services, including those who work with individuals facing mental health issues. Two of these included Nottingham Focus on Wellbeing and Highbury Hospital. Through these partnerships, it was identified that GOGA Nottingham could provide huge value to their work by providing individuals who face barriers to physical activity with some form of activity in a safe, familiar environment.
For both of the Denton Green and Highbury Hospital sessions it was very important for GOGA Nottingham to identify a suitable deliverer to run these yoga sessions. Therefore, when they met with instructor Valentina Paonessa who had previously delivered on local projects, such as Fit in the Community, it was clear that her approach to delivery would be the right fit to run some GOGA Yoga.
I love mixing practice with theory, tips of lifestyle, relaxation and meditation, in a really welcoming and friendly atmosphere. Classes that allow you to live in a yoga state on and off the mat.
Valentina
Each of the sessions, due to their different settings and environment, were promoted in slightly different ways.
Ambleside
With the yoga at Ambleside primary school the primary target audience were the parents of the Ambleside school children. Channels such as the school newsletter were a great medium to promote the sessions. The sessions were run at 2pm, just in time to relax and unwind before the school run!
Denton Green
The sessions run at the Denton Green Training centre were run in partnership with the support Nottingham Focus on Wellbeing (NFOW) and Evolve Community Interest Company. They engage with individuals from the local community with mental health issues and provide them with support from the training centre.
Both NFOW and Evolve have been extremely active in promoting these sessions to these individuals. They also promote the activity through these trusted channels and had success in reaching inactive individuals who traditionally face barriers in being active. The organisers are moving towards advertising these sessions in the wider community, which will help to reach more people and promote the benefits of yoga.
Highbury Hospital
Due to the nature of the environment for the yoga sessions run at Highbury Hospital, the team identifies participants and supports them in attending the sessions on site. Originally the sessions were as a result of the demand identified in consultation with the women’s wards. However, once the sessions had started the team at Highbury identified a number of male patients who also expressed an interest in the sessions. In the end, they had more male participants than females, which was great to see.
Building on success
The team in Nottingham has now engaged a number on individuals through these blocks who felt that yoga had a great impact on their wellbeing and reduced stress. Now that these individuals are familiar with yoga they are looking to establish another weekly session, in a community setting, so these people can access the next-step on their active journey.
Ruth Taylor, lead of the Live Project at Highbury Hospital, has reported a significant change in the participants that have taken part in the activities. This includes an increase in their concentration over the weeks and improvement in their ability to feel engaged for the whole session.
Ruth also reported the positive impact that the change in the environment has from the wards to a calm, positive atmosphere. It gives individuals something to look forward to each week. Many of these participants have expressed interest in continuing with yoga once they leave Highbury and return to the community.
On a session visit to the yoga class at Highbury Hospital and Denton Green training centre on the 26 February 2018, the levels of relaxation were evident. Claudia Russell, Get Out Get Active Project Officer for Nottingham took part in her first yoga class too.
I really enjoyed the calm environment of the room, and even noticed a few individuals so completely relaxed they had even drifted off!
Claudia Russell, Nottingham
The feedback we have had across the yoga sessions that have been extremely positive, particularly relating to the positive impact on individual’s mental health, stress levels and anxiety. One participant who attended sessions at Ambleside primary school said:
I really enjoyed yoga. It helped me get through depression following traumatic event. Theresa was absolutely lovely. I would definitely love to do yoga again.
Ambleside participant