MEDIA RELEASE 28 March 2017

2 pages

CHS_06_17

Fun speeds recovery for Coalville patients A scheme to help older patients exercise while having fun could be helping them recover more quickly. Coalville Community Hospital now has three meaningful activity coordinators, who work with colleagues to devise ways to provide extra therapy in enjoyable ways. That can include playing cards and other games with limbs paralysed by stroke, socialising with other patients over a “proper” cup of tea, or communal singing. A full evaluation of the project is still being developed, but feedback from patients and their relatives has been overwhelmingly supportive. In a recent inspection report, the Care Quality Commission highlighted the coordinators as an example of good practice. “This improved the patient’s experience whilst admitted and increased the activities that were conducted on a day to day basis,” their report added. Most of the inpatients at Coalville are older people, and many are receiving treatment following strokes. The range of activities they are offered includes tea-parties, games such as Connect Four and cards, and visits to the hospital’s gardens. They can also interact with items which were common when they were younger, and watch films and TV programmes from bygone years. Or they can simply talk to a coordinator. Jo Tinsley is one of the meaningful activities coordinators, who are known as pink ladies because of their distinctive uniform. She said: “It’s a sneaky kind of therapy. They are having fun doing things they wouldn’t necessarily do. We do a games afternoon for example – that is for stroke patients to use their affected page 1 of 2 pages

arm, but it won’t feel clinical, they are having fun, and if they want they can have tea from a china cup while they are doing it. “If somebody has not had eight hours in a chair, they will feel more positive which will then impact on their rehab. So yes, it works.” Inpatient matron Tom Evans agrees. He said: “They may not think they are doing therapy interventions, so they feel a bit differently about it and they feel more like a person than a patient. “If we get them feeling more like themselves they don’t take on that ‘sick’ role where they feel that they should be in bed and they lose their independence. “I think it helps patients get better more quickly.” Plans are being progressed to extend the scheme to St Luke’s Hospital in Market Harborough, which is home to Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust’s other specialist stroke ward. To see the coordinators in action, watch this short video: https://youtu.be/4PYSuKYVoUU ENDS

Note to editors Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (LPT) provides a range of health and wellbeing services mainly for people living Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. The Trust serves a population of one million, has a budget in excess of £267 million and employs approximately 5,400 staff. For more information visit www.leicspart.nhs.uk.

For further information contact: Brendan McGrath, Communications Manager, Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust, Tel: 0116 295 0801, E: [email protected]

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