Wellness for all with Cork Sports Partnership
By Geraldine Fitzgerald
The pandemic really brought home the message that health is paramount. It’s jolted us out of complacency and there’s a huge desire from people of all ages to be well. Not just fit, but happy, healthy and able to enjoy our lives.
Information overload can be paralysing – how to start? What to do? What to eat? Why? If you’d like a guiding hand, motivation and structure to help you find your way back to wellness, Cork Sports Partnership have a wealth of resources on their site, with specific goal setting and daily tasks for you.
WellComm Active
WellComm Active is an exciting new health and wellbeing initiative, providing programmes at local community level to help people with exercise, weight management and healthy eating.
The idea is that active communities are well communities – hence the title – and the initiative is part of Cork Sports Partnership’s Active Communities Strategy and is also supported by Cork Kerry Community Healthcare.
WellComm Active gives adults the tools to manage their health and wellbeing in order to improve their quality of life. The long-term goal is to help people avoid hospital admissions and manage health issues and illnesses through early intervention.
The programmes place an emphasis on fun and participation and are suited to the general adult population.
Eoin Kaar, WellComm Active Project Lead at the Cork Sports Partnership explained: “We work with community groups and people who would be unlikely or unable to join gyms or sporting clubs. We help them incorporate useful exercise, healthy eating and physical activity in their lives. Apart from dietary and physical change, mental health is also vastly improved when we support people in active wellness within their community.”
The core WellComm Active programmes are:
Project WeightLoss
This 12 week community-based physical activity and weight management programme to help individuals who’ve been inactive or are overweight.
It’s a supervised and structured exercise to support lifelong behaviour change.
Staying fit for the future
Ageing impacts reaction times, bone health, strength, balance and flexibility of tissue; this programme helps prevent deterioration in adults by focusing on strength, flexibility and balance in order to maintain good independent movement. It helps ensure factors like steps, darkness, hills etc. don’t become an obstacle to enjoying an active and healthy life.
Made2Move
Need a little handholding? Made to Move is a one-to-one mentoring programme supports physically inactive people in becoming more active, developing exercise as a long-term habit. By the end of the 8 week programme, it is hoped participants can reach the recommended 150 minutes of physical activity per week on a regular basis.
Healthy food made easy
The 6 week nutrition education programme for adults has been developed by HSE community dietitians to promote healthy eating and build simple cookery skills. It’s ideal for combatting diet-related chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease, obesity and diabetes.
Health professionals or interested participants can contact Eoin Kaar at WellComm Active: wellcommactive@corksports.ie, 021-434-7096 or 086-1409225 or see www.corksports.ie.