World Health Day: Supporting disabled people to enjoy more healthy and active lifestyles

It is World Health Day today (7 April 2015), sponsored by the World Health Organisation, and this year the focus is on food safety. Here, we talk to Linda Hancox, from Fit for Life, about her work with disabled people to enjoy more healthy and active lifestyles.

The English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) exists to make active lives possible, with a vision that disabled people are active for life. We recognise that healthy eating forms a key part of fitness and wellbeing, and food safety is naturally paramount.

In February this year, BBC News reported that people with a learning disability need more support to make better decisions when it comes to diet and healthy living:

“People with learning disabilities find it difficult to understand the consequences of their lifestyles, so are much more likely to have diabetes, obesity, poorer health and to die younger than the general population.” The British Institute of Learning Disabilities (BILD).

“There needs to be support and encouragement so adults with learning disabilities understand healthy eating and healthy lifestyle options,” BILD added.

To mark World Health Day's theme, EFDS is highlighting the good work of Fit for Life. It's a project in North Devon founded by primary care liaison nurse Linda Hancox, alongside her colleague Phill Howe.

As well as providing fitness opportunities promoting healthy lifestyles for adults with a learning disability in the region, Linda’s expertise has broadened to include delivering dietary advice to people who need it most.

Linda tells EFDS:

“I work with people who have learning difficulties and who in many cases have additional physical disabilities as well, such as mobility impairments.

“Often those people have additional mental health problems. They may be on medication, and one major problem with that form of medicine can be weight gain.

“Medication is a big problem for people who are trying to get fit and lose weight, because it impacts on what they can do.

“A sedentary lifestyle, with limited mobility, can really affect your lifespan. There are many additional issues that you don’t often see among those who aren't disabled, that impact upon disabled people’s ability to get fit and lose weight.”

"It was a steep learning curve and very interesting"

In 2008 Linda and Phill applied for funding from the Queens’ Nursing Institute’s Fund for Innovation, and were successful. The following January Fit for Life began, in a chilly hall in Northam and delivered by a sports coach with significant prior experience of working with disabled people.

“We advertised Fit for Life as a fitness session – we thought people would come, lose weight and get fitter. We thought we would improve people’s quality of life,” says Linda.

“We realised quite quickly that fitness is quite subjective. What is fitness to one person – being able to run 10 miles without stopping – for someone else is totally unachievable. For some, being able to get yourself up and off the floor if you’ve fallen over is a major achievement. Being able to lift your hands over your head, so you can dress yourself and retain your independence, can be a major achievement.

“We had a wide spread people with different abilities when we started, so we had to quickly modify what we were doing. It was a steep learning curve for us and very interesting.”

That rush to develop and adapt in order to meet the needs of as many disabled people as possible paid dividends, and Fit for Life is still going strong.

“You tell the trainer what it is you want to achieve. We can then tailor exercises to you. And there is also a DVD for use in the home. The class runs for an hour once a week on Tuesday mornings, but we wanted to encourage people to exercise more than once a week.”

However, Linda noticed that while she has succeeded in developing the regularity of the physical exercise those attending the class were undertaking, another obstacle needed to be addressed.

That obstacle was diet.

“We had people coming to us who were attending slimming classes, but I wasn’t convinced their coaches were taking into account their disability. So I looked at all sorts of fad diets, and in the end we sought out local dieticians.

“If you want to lose weight there is no way you’re going to be able to do enough exercise to burn enough calories. It will have to be achieved through diet.

“We can blame a sedentary lifestyle of course, but also people’s limitations. Can everyone follow the shouted instructions in a fitness class at a gym? Because that’s the level of exercise you need to do in order to burn the required amounts of calories.

“It’s simply not possible for some disabled people.”

Linda liaised with local dieticians, and worked to produce an accessible guide to healthy eating, available in both Easyread and British Sign Language. It gives you step-by-step guidance as to how you can prepare and stick to a healthy diet, which when combined with regular activity improves health and wellbeing.

"There is also a risk in terms of safe preparation of food"

But alongside healthy eating, safe food preparation is key. World Health Day is using the hashtag #safefood on social media today, and for Linda it is just as important as dietary knowledge.

“A lot of the people we support have carers, so many times people are being supported while preparing their food, or even having food prepared for them,” says Linda.

“But not everyone – some people we support live independently. Those are the people that are most at risk, because those are people who can eat microwaveable, poor foods.

“And there is also a risk in terms of safe preparation of food. For some people we support, hygiene is an issue. Both personal and environmental hygiene, and it can be difficult to keep on top of that. Many people do not enjoy 24 hour support.

“The irony is that processed food are often safe to eat, but of course we educate people to eat fresh food. And then food safety comes into play.”

Share your celebrations for World Health Day with EFDS. Let us know how you are using the Day to promote your activities to disabled people.

The NHS campaign Change 4 Life provides some excellent fitness advice for both disabled adults and children. Change 4 Life also has dietary advice, as does a website both Linda and Phill regularly update called A Picture of Health. EFDS has also produced Being Active: Guide to support inactive disabled people to enjoy a more active lifestyle. You can also find your nearest IFI accredited gym, which pride themselves on accessibility.