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The Oxfordshire Mental Health Partnership is committed to working with the ‘whole person’ and treating physical and mental health needs together. Each organisation has it’s own ways of promoting physical health.

Response have setup physical health clinics on their Recovery Campus to help residents promptly get help for any physical health concerns. Connection Support help to offer advice around healthy eating and support their clients to use local facilities such as healthcare and leisure. Oxfordshire Mind are in the process of embedding a physical health coordinator into Oxford Health’s Early Intervention in Psychosis service. They will be responsible for monitoring and supporting the physical health of service users.

Sport and fitness

Oxfordshire Mind have a group called Walking for Wellbeing which lead walks across Oxford and Banbury. They have six active walking groups from locations across the Oxfordshire Mental Health Partnership and at Turning Point, and have recruited a team of 12 volunteer walk leaders. They are an accredited Walking for Health scheme and work closely with the city council health walks to signpost their walkers onto them. They have also a series of virtual walks where they take readers all around the globe including the bottom of the ocean, top of the Himalayas, and even to outer space. To find out how to access the walks and read the virtual walks, go to the following webpage www.oxfordshiremind.org.uk/wellbeing/physical-activity

Oxfordshire Mind have also teamed up with Amy’s Online Yoga Club (https://nomoreshoulds.com/) to offer free memberships to those who use Oxfordshire Mind’s services. The free membership provides:

  • Unlimited live online classes from the comfort of home
  • Access to library of past classes
  • Online community group for motivation and chat

They also offer discounted kickboxing sessions at the Oxford Kickboxing Club. The club recognises that kickboxing and exercise can be a fantastic way to improve wellbeing, and so would like to make their sessions more accessible to anyone who is struggling with their mental health.

Aspire, another local Oxfordshire charity, have an initiative called the Gym Bus. The Bus aims to improve accessibility of sports and social inclusion opportunities for those who need it the most. With lots of different sports sessions, gym equipment and activities to chose from, gym bus users can work on their physical and mental wellbeing, develop new skills and have fun. They know how important physical health is to mental health and hope to help people make positive life changes. https://www.aspireoxfordshire.org/Blog/aspires-gym-bus-is-on-the-road

Sport in Mind is an independent multi-award winning mental health charity (unaffiliated to Mind and not part of the local Mind network) that was formed in Reading, Berkshire in 2010 with a simple mission: “To improve the lives of people experiencing mental health problems through sport and physical activity”. They have recently expanded out to Oxfordshire and offer sports sessions such as football, badminton, basketball, table tennis among many others. (https://sportinmind.eu.rit.org.uk/)