Last week, the first steering group was held to kick off Get Yourself Active Local (GYAL) in Tameside. This initiative is led by Disability Rights UK, and brings together health and social care, local leisure providers and Disabled peoples organisations. The aim is to increase the number of disabled people and those with long term health conditions able to be physically active in ways that suit them.
Despite the growing evidence that movement supports wellbeing, disabled people are twice as likely to be inactive compared to non-disabled people. GYAL aims to close this gap by embedding physical activity into everyday life, services and decision-making across the borough.
The Tameside Public Health Team are bringing together the key partners, including people with lived experience and directors of adult social care, so they can co-design, deliver and support sustainable opportunities to be active.
After the first steering group, Tameside’s Principal Social Worker made the fantastic decision to make Moving Conversations Training mandatory for all adult social care staff.
This is a huge step for Tameside into supporting people to get active in ways that are comfortable, empowering and important to them.
What is the ‘Moving Conversations’ training?
Moving Conversations is a three-hour interactive workshop designed to help people have compassionate, person centred conversations about movement and wellbeing. It equips participants with practical tools to support others in finding meaningful, achievable ways to move more, based on what truly matters to them. Disabled people report that social workers are trusted messengers and are therefore well placed to have conversations that encourage individuals to move more.
