Active Older People (APPHLE) HIT review for 2019-20

Professor Selena Gray and Karen Lloyd-Pyrke, Directors of the Active Older People Health Integration Team (APPHLE HIT), give an update on their work in 2019/20.

Last year we completed the REtirement in ACTion (REACT) study, a community, group-based physical activity intervention for reducing, or reversing, the progression of functional limitations in older people who are at high risk of mobility-related disability. We are anticipating that results will be published in autumn 2020. Over 700 people were successfully recruited. Preliminary discussions have been held with the local Clinical Commissioning Group about how to embed this as a pilot project within their new frailty pathway and a site identified in North Bristol.

We held the NO LIMITS – a free outdoor photography exhibition of active older people on College Green last August to raise awareness of activity in later life. Alex Rotas is a Bristol artist who has undertaken pioneering work photographing older athletes, showing that age is no barrier to active living. Giant showcases were used to display action images of champion athletes who are still competing, winning medals &/or breaking records in their 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s or more, interwoven with shots of active older Bristol residents. Staged by Active Ageing Bristol and funded by Bristol Health Partners, the exhibition secured considerable publicity locally. With support from Bristol City Council and other local sponsors including Bristol hospitals charity Above & Beyond, Clarke Willmott Solicitors and the City Centre Business Improvement Team, the NO LIMITS exhibition is set to relocate to Castle Park in April 2021.

Co-ordinated by Active Ageing Bristol in 2018 and 2019, Bristol Walk Fest is an annual, month-long, series of walks and events, held across the city of Bristol for the last seven years. The 2019 festival took place during May 2019 and aimed to get more people out walking across the city. Last year’s event engaged more than 7,800 participants (4448 in 2018), included 257 walks and events (an increase of 58% from 2018), with a total of more than 12,600 miles walked. Nearly two-thirds of people said that the event will encourage them to increase the amount of walking they do.

We worked in collaboration with other HITs last year, including Dementia HIT and Stroke HIT. Co-funding with Dementia HIT, exercise on referral for mild cognitive impairment programme.

With Dementia HIT, we co-funded an exercise on referral programme for people with mild cognitive impairment. It started with the first referrals from the MCI clinic, Southmead Hospital.The first 12-week cycle ran from October to December with the participation of four patients (plus three accompanying partners) at Henbury Leisure Centre and six patients (plus two accompanying partners) at Kingswood Leisure Centre. Three or four more cycles are planned. We are very excited about this project as this is the first joint initiative with secondary care.

We worked with Stroke HIT to support the local pilot of Stroke Odysseys which is a dance intervention for stroke survivors delivered by Rosetta Life. We secured grant funding (to deliver intervention which has recruited very successfully.

In partnership with West of England Nature Partnership, with support from The Care Forum and funded by Bristol Health Partners, we developed the Blue Care Guide, a directory of water-based activities. It has been published as a hard copy and available on the Well Aware website from July 2019.

We launched the Age-Friendly Activity Hub Scheme inOctober 2019 with the aims to make physical activity more accessible to people aged 55 and over. The scheme highlights and promotes age-friendly physical activity facilities in Bristol and 16 local organisations have already signed up, covering 19 sites.