Facilitated by the hospital’s occupational therapy team and activity co-ordinators, the day began with gentle warm up exercises led by the therapy team. Next up a group of service users and staff were given the challenge of cycling as many miles as possible in a five hour period on the hospital’s gym bikes.
While this challenge continued service users were then involved in a friendly football match in the hospital courtyard which gave them the chance to let off some energy, show off their skills or just enjoy supporting their peers in watching the game.
Following the morning’s events a special healthy lunch option, previously chosen by the service users, was provided. The kitchen staff worked hard to prepare and serve this to all the wards which included cauliflower soup to start, chickpea and spinach Daal curry or Cod Tagine with cous cous for the main and Raspberry Fool for desert. Both the staff and service users thoroughly enjoyed the menu on the day.
In the afternoon there was a sports quiz on all three wards and a Food & Mood group was also facilitated. This group was designed to raise awareness of how different food and drinks can affect mental health and how changing your diet in some areas can improve many symptoms for individuals that suffer from mental health problems.
Service users and staff enjoyed the blind smoothie tasting during this session and were successful in guessing some of the unusual ingredients included in them (such as kale, spinach or carrots). Service users said they would be more likely to try different smoothies at home following this session.
The day was brought to a close by calculating the mileage accumulated during the cycle challenge between service users and staff; a fantastic achievement of 51.43 miles / 82.67 kilometres were cycled within the 5 hour allocation time of the route!
Well done to everyone who took part and for making it a very successful day.