Community occupational therapists Clare O'Brien (left) and Kaye Tolra inundated by 40 donated pairs of New Balance shoes.
Community occupational therapists Clare O'Brien (left) and Kaye Tolra inundated by 40 donated pairs of New Balance shoes.
Northland mental health patients are getting some healthy balance into their lives after a sports shoe company gave 40 pairs of new footwear to the Northland District Health Board.
New Balance donated the shoes to the health board's mental health patients to enable them to fully engage in fitness classeswhich contribute towards improving their overall health and well-being.
The Activ8 Northland classes for the mental health patients - funded by rehabilitation service Recovery Solutions - have been running for 18 months and staff have noticed many positive outcomes.
Psychiatrist Vernon Reynolds said it made sense for patients and staff to take a holistic view to health but converting it into a reality could be a challenge. However, one of those barriers - access to good footwear - had been removed.
"We're trying to get people to understand that lifestyle choice is a huge part of what keeps us well - the eating, drinking, sleeping, activity, socialising in our lives, keep us going and maintains us and attention to those things is important," Dr Reynolds said.
"I think in our field of health, especially, there tends to be a huge focus on taking medication which is valuable but can have nasty side effects, such as weight gain and slowing (the clients) down.
"There's not much emphasis on all this sort of stuff that goes on around it and it's nice to push those things because they're incredibly important and I don't think we give them credit."
Occupational therapist in the Early Intervention in Psychosis team Kaye Tolra said there was now an awareness that people with mental health conditions were more likely to experience early onset cardiac disease, diabetes and other metabolic-related illnesses.
The exercise groups, including one at Whangarei Aquatic Centre, were set up to provide physical education towards clients' well-being. The classes had made a huge difference to patients' anxiety, negative symptoms of schizophrenia, smoking cessation, confidence, self-esteem and socialisation.
The new shoes came about after staff noticed that, while they provided a free gym group, the attendees were ill-equipped.
"People were turning up in bare feet, slippers and jandals and we've realised it's more than the free gym membership that we need," Ms Tolra said.
Soon after she approached New Balance the company provided the shoes, and staff of the district health board had been chuffed with the clients' reactions.
Activ8 Northland personal trainer Shane Dunseath said good, supportive footwear was high on the list of priorities when undertaking exercise.
