Ride to health

On page 11 of the July 2012 issue of RCN Bulletin, therapy manager Phil Broxton talks about his career at St Andrew’s Healthcare and initiatives he has introduced to help improve the general health of male service users. Read more about Phil’s experiences below

Phil has been working at St Andrew’s Healthcare in Northampton in various roles for 20 years. The charity provides secure residential care for men, women, older people and adolescents with severe mental health problems, learning disabilities and challenging behaviour. Phil currently works in the men’s service where many people have a history of offending.

“It is important to remember that it is not our role to judge,” Phil says. “That has already happened before people come to us. The most effective thing we can do to facilitate recovery and to encourage co-operation is to engage service users in things they enjoy doing.”

St Andrew’s benefits from state of the art facilities. Service users, dependent upon
where they are in their care pathway, can take part in workshop sessions, use the onsite multi-gym, visit the library, develop daily living skills at the working cafe and make use of the indoor swimming pool.

Phil has a particular passion for improving the general health of service users and has introduced specific initiatives around cycling as well as encouraging some clients to take part in charity bike rides off site. Last year he led a small group of staff and service users on a 25 mile ride to raise money for a local hospice. Stephen was one of the clients who took part.

“It was really good,” he says. “I enjoyed it at the start but I did get tired. Everyone started to cheer me on and say ‘go for it’. I finished the race in two and a half hours. The training helped me get much fitter and lose weight.”

It is this sort of activity, Phil believes, that empowers and inspires service users. “Training for these races gives the men something to work towards and look forward to. Seeing them have a goal and witness the impact of them achieving is fantastic. They grow in confidence and it gives them something to talk about. It gives them hope that if they can achieve this, they can achieve anything.” 

Phil is also keen on involving service users in their own care, individuals are elected ward representatives and report back on the ideas and thoughts of clients on their unit. Stephen undertakes this role and says it gives him a sense of purpose and responsibility.

“It’s important for us to get our views across,” says Stephen. “Phil is good because he gets us actively involved. He asks for our ideas and we get together to give feedback.”