Pedometer Challenge

Proposal:

West London Mental Health Trust plans to run a pedometer challenge in summer 2012,starting during Walk to Work Week (14 – 18 May 2012). The Challenge aims to increase physical activity levels in staff and promote walking as a mode of transport. The 2009Boorman Report on NHS Health and Wellbeing identified the need to increase staff wellbeingin the work place. Earlier this year, the Royal College of Physicians audited West LondonMental Health NHS Trust to assess implementation of the National Institute for Health andClinical Excellence (NICE) guidance for the workplaces. The audit highlighted that the Trustis below average on its implementation of guidance on physical activity and obesity. TheTrust is currently developing travel plans for all its sites that aim to increase the use of activetravel modes to improve health and fitness and reduce travel impacts and carbon emissions.We propose using the Living Streets Walk to Work Week challenge as the basis for theTrust’s challenge. We will build on this foundation by issuing pedometers to staff andcontinuing monitoring and promoting walking over a longer period. We will submit thisproject to the London 2012 Inspire Programme and if successful use Olympics branding tohelp promote the project.

The Challenge will run over a three month period and be offered to staff at all Trust sitesacross the London Boroughs of Ealing, Hounslow and Hammersmith & Fulham as well asBroadmoor Hospital in Berkshire. Funding from the NHS Travel Network will only be used forthe London sites. Participating staff will be given a pedometer to wear for the duration of theChallenge and be required to log their daily steps on www.mylivingstreets.org.uk

All walking trips will be included; the journey to work, walking around site during the day including onwardactivities and weekend and leisure trips.

The project is being jointly delivered by the Travel & Transport Team, the Staff Health andWellbeing Team and the Trust’s Physical Activity Advisors. It will be promoted through anumber of different channels including:• Occupational Health referrals;• Physiotherapy referrals;• Lunchtime walking group;• St Bernard’s Hospital on-site gym;• On-site posters;• Trust intranet;• Weekly newsletter ‘Monday Matters’; and• Bi-monthly newsletter ‘Mental Health Matters’

Senior Clinical Leads (including the Medical Director who is a champion of physical activityand regularly runs marathons for charitable causes) will be recruited to act as ambassadorsfor the project. Their role will be to encourage staff participation in the Challenge. It isanticipated that the inter-team competition will be key to making the Challenge a success.Regular updates about progress (including distance walked, calories burnt, and a leaderboard of teams and individuals) will be issued to staff using the channels above. Participantswill receive a certificate for every hundred miles they have walked as part of the challenge.

Lunchtime and after-work walks will be run regularly at the Trust’s largest sites during theChallenge to encourage people to continue to increase their walking distances. Gymmembers will be encouraged to use the treadmills to increase their steps. The walks will tiein with the already established lunchtime walks at the St Bernard’s site and we aim to use theChallenge as a vehicle for setting up walks at other sites and increasing the number ofwalkers at St Bernard’s. If we are successful in obtaining funding for this Challenge, we willinvestigate the possibility of training staff at the Trust’s largest sites (St Bernard’s Hospital,Broadmoor Hospital, Lakeside Metal Health Unit and Hammersmith & Fulham Mental HealthUnit) to become walk leaders.

At the end of the Challenge, all participants will be presented with a certificate of participationby a senior manager. The certificate will include information relevant to each person. Prizeswill be available for the individual and team that walk the furthest during the challenge.Individual prizes will be based on gold, silver and bronze medals to tie in to the OlympicGames theme.

Any pedometers not used for this Challenge will be kept and used in future promotions forstaff (for example, exercise referrals with a walking information pack from OccupationalHealth).

Funding:

We are applying to the NHS Travel Network for 474. This will be supplemented with funding from the Travel Plan Budgets and Health Promotion Budget as well as supportedwith resource time from the Trust.