Exerstrider strapless walking poles are ideal for falls prevention and senior wellbeing programmes

The falls and bone health team at St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust in London have recently added an exercise intervention scheme to target the primary and secondary prevention of fractures.

Nordic walking will be one of the core components on offer. They hope to be able to start this client group on a journey of change behaviour following diagnosis of a bone health condition (osteopenia/osteoporosis/fragility fracture) and support them through their self management of their condition. Bernadette Kennedy BSc, MCSP lead for the project will demonstrate what is being provided, how they are capturing impact/outcomes and how this service directly links with the falls prevention exercise service.

Gymstick resistance bands can be used indoors or out.

Bernadette and her team at Community Services Wandsworth have been running an established falls service for over 6 years – they received additional funding this year to deliver an assessment and intervention service for bone health patients. The results have been impressive and Bernadette has set up a full programme that enables her team to train their own volunteer walk leaders to ensure participants can continue to progress and participate without impacting too much on the staffing hours. The exercise sessions incorporate walking,balance drills and upper body resistance using a mix of Exerstrider walking poles, Nordic walking poles and Gymstick resistance bands.

Join Bernadette, Dr John Searle (Keynote speaker) and Physiotherapist Heather Watson to find out more about the scheme and how walking programmes can be used effectively for a number of conditions.  Book Here