With the NHS and its workforce facing increasing challenges, a public health charity in the North-West of England has shown how sports and physical activity provision can support the health needs of communities.

Mersey Cares was set up in 2020 following unprecedented demands on health services during the Covid-19 pandemic. It plays a vital and growing role in working alongside the Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust to help people keep well and living well at home for longer. 

Funding projects that improve care and facilities for patients and communities across Cheshire and Merseyside, it has been able to fund a number of initiatives to support physical and mental health including table tennis and badminton.

CALMER

An outdoor concrete table tennis table has been installed at Windsor House in Toxteth to support patients with enduring mental health issues to socialise, increase fitness levels and learn a new skill.

Assistant Nurse Simon Craske explained: “It’s a great way to focus the mind. I remember a lady who couldn’t settle. I asked her if she’d played table tennis and challenged her to a game. She could really play; she had great hand to eye co-ordination. We were still playing an hour later and she said she felt so much calmer.”

Badminton is being used to help promote an active lifestyle in the local Chinese community. Community Inclusion Worker, Yan Xiao, initiated a physical health initiative that enabled her to talk to people in the Chinese community about their health conditions and encouraged them to take a first step to becoming more physically active.

Devising a dedicated six-month badminton programme comprising trial sessions has provided an avenue for individuals to participate in the sport, enhancing overall wellbeing, reducing isolation and further improving their mental and physical health.

Yan Xiao commented: “After six months of badminton trial sessions, the players who participated in our group have adopted this kind of activity as a part of their life and it has brought them happiness. There are more than 30 participants who take part and all of them said they have a new hobby.

DIFFERENT

“Some people with health conditions have reported that participating in the activity has helped them manage their blood sugar levels and cope with stress more effectively.”

Simon also recalled a patient who had a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. “He’d played table tennis in the past, so I challenged him to a game. He’d been struggling with his mobility but when he played, he was amazing and was like a different person."

Find out more at merseycares.org

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