SSRP launch Bike at Home initiative
SLIGO Sport and Recreation Partnership (SSRP) have teamed up with Sligo County Council, Healthy Ireland and the HSE to develop an initiative that provides adults with intellectual disabilities living in community settings with the opportunity to be active in their own homes, helping them to keep well. Keeping active to help people look after their physical and mental health and well-being is a key theme of the Government’s plan for Living with Covid-19. The new Bike at Home Pilot initiative is supported locally under the Community Resilience
Fund administered through Healthy Ireland.
Five local HSE Community Houses have been identified to participate in the initiative’s pilot phase. Each of the community houses involved will receive the loan of a new stationary exercise bike for use by the adult residents in each house, providing them with both an accessible and easy way to be physically active on a regular bias in their own homes.
Staff in the five houses selected will also receive training from the SSRP Sports Inclusion Officer Shane Hayes and Darragh McLynn (HSE Health & Well Being Officer), who supports a number of HSE residential services in Sligo. In addition to learning how to use the exercise bikes safely and correctly, the training will also involve the use of personalised activity logs for each of the participants involved, enabling them to track their progress and activity levels over the course of an eight-week programme. By improving the physical fitness of the adult residents involved, the programme aims to build their confidence and resilience, enabling them to become more independent in their day to day living.
It is planned to extend the programme to additional HSE houses in the future to address the physical activity needs of the large number of adults now living and based in community settings throughout the county. Tim O’Sullivan, Director of Nursing for HSE Cregg Services, stated: “I am delighted to support this Keep Well initiative which will help our residents to look after their physical and mental health by being more active.”
If any HSE Community House staff in Sligo would like to find out more about the Bike at Home programme or other ways to encourage their residents to increase their physical activity levels, they can contact Shane at shane@sligosportandrecreation. ie or Darragh at darragh. mclynn@hse.ie
This Bike at Home initiative is being delivered through the Keep Well campaign, with thanks to Healthy Ireland, an initiative of the Government of Ireland with funding from the Healthy Ireland Fund and the Slaintecare fund delivered by Pobal.