“If you want to exercise, regardless of what your body looks like, whether you have an impairment or not, that is your right, you should be able to do that”
(Sarah, Cara Survey Respondent)
‘Active Healthy Me’ is an exciting health, wellbeing and physical activity e-learning programme for disability day services that aims to enable people with disabilities to be more active and live a healthy lifestyle. The programme was launched on December 1st, 2022 in the Castleknock Hotel by Cara Sports Inclusion Ireland alongside HSE collaborators from HSE Health and Wellbeing and Disability and Mental Health Services.
Welcoming the launch of the ‘Active Healthy Me’ programme, Sarah O’Brien, HSE Health and Wellbeing, Healthy Eating Active Living Programme commented:
“Physical activity plays such an important role in peoples’ lives, contributing positively to their physical, mental and social wellbeing. However research tells us that people with disabilities continue to be less likely to participate in physical activity and are more likely to be sedentary than people without a disability”.
Since its launch, more than 300 disability day service sites have enrolled in the ‘Active Healthy Me’ programme. These numbers have exceeded expectations given the total number of disability day services across the country total just over 1000 sites.
The programme also offers disability day service staff the opportunity to attend ‘Practice for Skills’ sessions which aim to create a community of those involved in the programme and further develop the knowledge and skillset of staff themselves in key thematic areas such as physical activity, healthy eating, hydration and goal-setting.
HSE Health and Wellbeing, Healthy Eating Active Living Programme project managers Dr Bláthín Casey and Eimear Cotter with CARA have developed a bespoke Train the Trainer model to ensure successful rollout of these ‘Practice for Skills’ sessions. Health Promotion and Improvement Officers across the CHOs will be trained via this model to then deliver these sessions to disability day service staff in their areas enrolled in ‘Active Healthy Me’.
The first Train the Trainer session was held on Feb 8th in the Aisling Hotel, Dublin with 12 Health Promotion and Improvement officers present with plans for a second session in September 2023.
For more information on Active Healthy Me, please visit www.caracentre.ie or contact Eimear Hubble, CARA at [email protected].