March 14th, 2010 Ivo
Running with the Good Gym is usually done on your own, but it seems like there’s a social side of running that we’re missing out on- So we’re looking for ways that groups of runners could do good stuff together. The sorts of things we’re excited about are things like Jogging with John (pictured) where the runners stick around to talk about art, science and business after their runs, or even better, Run Dem Crew which is about exchanging knowledge and inspiring younger generations. Though this is all well and good, how can we expand this idea to give the good activity some kind of physical aspect, could a group of people run somewhere and fix something, then run home again? Perhaps we could paint a wall, clear some rubble or help someone move into a new home? If you’ve got ideas about how a group of runners could achieve something good together, and get fit at the same time, we’d love to hear from you.
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February 28th, 2010 Ivo
The Good Gym was asked to present the project to an audience of South East Coast NHS improvement leads by the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement. The event aimed to inspire and provoke innovative solutions to the problem of the aging population by using design techniques and thinking outside existing service delivery models. Exciting ideas generated on the day ranged from working with supermarkets to offer bespoke menus to help those with specific dietary needs eat well to supporting the development of allotments and lunch clubs. I gave a presentation telling the story of the development of the Good Gym and we had an overwhelmingly positive response; participants gave us a lot of positive feedback for the project and suggested many possible ways of connecting it into the NHS. I hope the the model of the good gym, distributed approaches to delivering the important social aspect of healthcare, will help to sporn other similar projects from within the NHS. Next week I will be meeting with an NHS representative from Tower Hamlets next week and hope to begin a discussion of how the relationship can be formalised.
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January 18th, 2010 Ivo
Both in policy research and in business there are growing signs that a wider range of people are beginning to think about the challenges presented by an aging population in new ways. Another new report from the Young Foundation, The State of Happiness, describes one of the policy implications as ‘building social networks across and between generations’ (p.64) and that ‘government should be in the business of reducing stress, anxiety, loneliness and depression’ (p.87). Meanwhile, Peter Day, on his Radio 4 programme In Business has tried to summarise the business opportunities provided by an aging population; George Magnus discusses the need to increase the economic productivity of older people, raising the retirement age and a requirement for younger people to play a greater role in supporting older people.
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December 9th, 2009 Ivo
Bethnal Green based social innovation hub The Young Foundation has released a new report surveying unmet need in Britain. It identifies the ten most commonly unmet psychological needs which it argues were largely ignored during the 20th century, amongst these are self-esteem, autonomy, relatedness and meaning or self-actualisation. That psychological need underpins wellbeing is a key message of the study and an essential rationale behind The Good Gym: By helping to meet the psychological needs of isolated older people (a group that the study confirms as amongst the most vulnerable to unmet needs) we aim to bolster the ability for members to satisfy their own material needs. I hope the study, which contains a carefully balanced mixture of relevant quantitative information and sensitively written case-studies reminiscent of Michael Young’s work, acts as a starting point for an approach to government and third sector services that addresses psychological need as an integral part of provision.
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December 4th, 2009 Mark
The BBC’s front page this morning said that according to the report on social care for the elderly by the Care Quality Commission, the general standard of care is rising. However the report also says that one in four care homes in Britain are “adequate at best” and eight councils were named as needing to improve their care.
Of course there’s much improvement needed in care for older people but the news does appear to be generally positive – especially locally; Tower Hamlets was judged as “performing excellently”.
According to the report, excellent councils tend to encourage innovative models of service provision, and invest resources in partners to stimulate innovation. So a big thanks to St Hilda’s East, Bromley By Bow Centre and Toynbee Hall for working with us to provide a new service, CQC likes what you’re doing.
But we musn’t sit about on our laurels. Expert opinion is that top grades are being reached by allowing fewer people into care homes. This flags up a serious problem given the changing demographic of our population. According to the Telegraph, The Department of Health forecasts that by 2028, a quarter of all British adults will be over 65 and the number of people over 85 will have doubled. Combined with the usual problems of limited funding, this growing strain will increasingly demand fresh solutions.
A recent NESTA report subtitled “How transforming healthcare to involve the public can save money and save lives” said social enterprise is key in finding new ways to tackle the discrepancy between sheer volume of care needed and funding available. The Good Gym is part of a wider movement aiming to reduce the divides in our communities and build systems that allow and encourage people to help each other. in the process it aims to alleviate some of the mounting pressure on our existing social care structures.
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June 25th, 2009 Ivo
The Good Gym have been visiting St Hilda’s Community Centre over the last two weeks. St Hilda’s works to meet the diverse needs of the area of Tower Hamlets and offers a fantastic range of services for young and old alike.
The Good Gym team have visited two of the centre’s lunch clubs and discussed the plans for the Good Gym with a range of service users and we look forward to working more closely with the centre over the next few months.
On the 23rd of July, St Hilda’s will be celebrating its 120th anniversary - the Good Gym will be joining in a sponsored walk around the boundary estate - if you’re around on that date please come along and help make up the 120km total!
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