Why exercise report

The purpose of this report is to present the work undertaken by Healthwatch South Gloucestershire volunteer Enter and View authorised representatives during 2017/2018 to support the introduction of, or development of, ‘meaningful physical activity’ for elderly residents of Care Homes.

The evaluation was only of a very small number of Care Homes and therefore no firm conclusions can be drawn, or recommendations can be made. It was notable that Care Homes appeared to view ‘activity’ as the responsibility of the activities manager and not everybody’s business. It was however pleasing to have had some very positive feedback to the information provided. Traditionally behaviour change interventions have taken the form of posters but there are flaws in this approach. Raising awareness and giving people a logical reason why they should do something isn’t always the most effective method. Communications such as posters can be powerful but there is often a need for a way to facilitate behaviour change. Posters really only achieve success when integrated with a suite of interventions .