Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust

Organisation: Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust

Programme name: Bristol Active Life Project (BALP)

Country: England

City: Bristol

Sport / Physical activity: A variety of activities are offered including football, badminton, gym sessions, basketball, and walking groups.

Programme information, aims and objectives: Providing physical activity for people with severe and enduring mental illness. 

Participants: Individuals aged 18 years or over, of any gender, and of any mental health disorder. 

Sessions: The programme includes group sessions which are led by an instructor. Sessions are continually run throughout the year with 10 different sessions run throughout a given week. Sessions are run between 10:30am and 3:30pm and last between 1 to 1.5 hours. Sessions are run indoors or outdoors depending upon the specific activity. Generally, the intensity of a session is moderate, however this can fluctuate depending upon the personnel and the activity. 

Evaluation/Measurement of outcomes: Bristol Active Life Project - Evaluation Report 2009-2012 (Douglas & Carless). Highlights from the Executive Summary:

  • BALP has continued to set new levels for mental health physical activity provision registering 9,183 attendances at sport sessions.
  • In excess of 30 different types of physical activity sessions have been delivered through regular weekly sessions.
  • BALP is now offering mental health awareness and coach education support to volunteers on the project in an effort to reduce the gap between referral and attendance and increase sustained participation.
  • Feedback provided by service users suggests that:
    • BALP continues to be extremely well received by the people who access its sessions. The overwhelming majority of responses and comments were positive and appreciative of the real and tangible benefits the service users had experienced in their lives. The kinds of benefits that participants described were wide-ranging and individual-specific, relating to both their mental health and life more generally.
    • BALP groups provide something that is qualitatively different to public activity groups which relates in part to the social structure and ethos of the sessions. Many service users considered these qualities to be critical to (i) their ongoing involvement and (ii) the benefits they experience.
    • BALP coaches and leaders are an important aspect of the success of the sessions. Service users valued personal qualities (such as friendliness, accepting nature, relaxed demeanour, respectfulness, flexibility, supportive) alongside the ability to pitch the teaching of techniques and skills at an appropriately challenging level.

There is no standard format that can be prescribed for how an activity group should be run because what is required will depend on the unique needs of the group members.

Further information: www.bristol.gov.uk/social-care-health/bristol-active-life-project