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Parents it's "Time to Get Active" with your kids!
AS "SUMMERTIME" approaches, the Irish Society of Chartered Physiotherapists is urging parents to get out and get active with their children.
This new campaign aimend at helping parents of primary schoolchildren gets underway this weekend to remind everyone that when the clocks "go forward" next weekend (31 March) now is a great time to plan on getting out and getting active as a family. The campaign is this year's manifestation of the Society's annual Move4Health promotion which highlights the need for physical fitness and exercise as part of a healthy lifelstyle across the age span.
 This year's campaign will be supported by an advertising campaign voiced by popular 2FM presenter Ruth Scott (left) and by a new website www.move4health.ie which contains a host of information and advice for parents on their children's fitness. Move4Health week takes place from Monday next (25 March) and runs right through until Sunday and will see Chartered Physiotherapists around the country providing free information to parents on their children's fitness. Uniquely, this year's campaign will also seek to get a better picture of how active Irish children really are with a very short survey of children's activity levels and in particular, whether or not they have safe places to be active. This information will be used by the Society to address government and other bodies (schools, insureance companies etc) in relation to children's health.
Are you a member of the ISCP and interested in running an event? If so, please go directy to www.move4health.ie where you will find a range of leaflets, posters and other materials which you may download and print locally to run a campaign in your area or scroll down to "tools".
Chair: Declan O’Hanlon
The Chairperson of the 2013 Move 4 Health campaign is Declan O’Hanlon SMISCP. Declan is currently acting Deputy Physiotherapy Manager of St. James’s Hospital Dublin, having previously been based in the Diabetes Day Centre and Metabolic Research Unit in St. James’s Hospital where he conducted research relating to the effect of diet and exercise intervention on mitochondrial function in the management of early-onset type 2 diabetes in young people.
He was also involved in research in Dublin City University which examined predictive biomarkers of diabetes, and is currently the Therapy Lead on the HSE Prevention of Chronic Disease Clinical Programme.
Committee Member: Grace O’Malley
The campaign is also informed by the extensive research undertaken by M4H 2013 Committee Member, Grace O’Malley. Grace is a Senior Physiotherapist at Temple Street Children’s University Hospital, a Fullbright scholar and a Health Research Board Health Professionals Fellowship recipient.
Joanne Dowds and Eoghan Murphy are also members of this year's Move4Health Committee and their work on preparing a short questionnaire will form a vital part of the overall campaign goals. These include raising awareness among children and their parents and also using M4H week as an opportunity to find out how active or inactive our children really are - and why!
Tools
Our poster and leaflet are available now from this website and over the coming days we will unveil our new dedicated website where you will find lots more more tools to help you with your campaign, including press packs, powerpoint presentations and questionnaires.
This will enable members around the country to plan their activities. The "official" Move4Health week will begin on Monday 25 March (the week leading into the summertime changeover), however, we are aware that many members may wish to run their activities on other days. Expressions of interes for any campaign materials need between 25 and 3 April must be notified to ISCP Head Office prior to 15 March.
Why not download and print your posters and leaflets now?
The poster may be printed as either A3 or A4
The leaflet - complete with weekly activity guide may also be printed and used
What can I do?
Here are a few ideas to get your campaign off the ground
1. Book your place now for your stand: Whether it's a hospital or a shopping centre - you will need to request permission off the manager of the premises
2. Line-up your personnel - check they all have ISCP shirts to wear on the day.
3. Arrange for local print out of materials. Leaflets and posters can be ordered from head office but you should arrange to have local access to colour printing especially for posters which can be run-off quite easily.
4. Contact local shops and ask them to sponsor a fruit stand or bottled water or sports goods to hand out to people or to use to display activities.
5. Contact your local media and arrange an interview with your local radio station. Invite local newspapers to photograph your stand. (Press packs will be available from next week)
6. Contact your local schools and offer to present a slide show to parents and teachers (Powerpoint will be available from next week).
7. Arrange with local GPs surgeries, Dentitsts, Health Centres and Hospitals to display our posters, carry notices in theire newsletters, link to our website.
Have you got a great idea to promote Move4Health? Tell us about it so we can share it with members!
This year’s theme
The theme this year was selected after a submission to the board from Aileen Murphy highlighting the limited opportunities that children have to exercise on a daily basis.
Overweight children and adults
This also comes in context of 26% of Irish 9 year olds and 65% of Irish adults being overweight, with inactivity and obesity recognised as important risk factor for the development of chronic disease, the prevalence of which continues to increase.
As overweight children tend to go on to become overweight adults, the earlier that children are exposed to a culture of physical activity, the better.
Explaining the choice of theme, Declan said: “I have seen progressively younger patients presenting with type 2 diabetes, and earlier onset increases exposure to the disease, which increases the risk of developing future diabetes complications (in some cases: blindness and amputation).”
This year’s campaign is part of a longer term focus and commitment by the ISCP to address the issue of inactivity and obesity, particularly among children, and to highlight the role of Chartered Physiotherapists as experts in health promotion and exercise prescription.
Members are encourage to take part in highlighting this important issue: encouraging physical activity for children, and thereby contributing to the prevention of chronic disease. To request promotion materials, please email move4health@iscp.ie |
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