RED

January 28, 2005

Activemob Week 3 Report: Of Dogs and Mammoths in Maidstone

This week we've been back in Kent and taking part in our first mob meetings starting 9:30 Monday morning with a Welliemob (dog mob) walk around Mote Park. On Wednesday Anne Marie our personal trainer joined us and has us jogging and running between trees. Given that they met last week some of the participants are already reporting the benefits:

"I feel better mentally" "It gets you out - you just get a bit depressed sometimes" "I've done more walking in the last week than the last three years, I usually only walk from Trisha to the kettle and from the car to the school gates"

One clear benefit of the group is that you feeling comfortable with people you know and aren't too worried about making a fool of yourself. The Welliemob members had found that joining an aerobics class where you don't know anyone - but they all know the steps, as a particularly harrowing experience.

We've been testing the idea of a catalogue of activities and rewards that emerged out of last weeks workshops - it certainly seem like it would work, most people are familiar with Avon, Kleeneasy, Betterware and their small format makes them very portable.

Tuesday midday oustide HSBC we started the first Timemob walk - a fascinating 1.5hour walk around Maidstone city centre led by Doug pointing out places of historical interest on the way. Amongst other things we learn about alms houses, where the mammoth was found in the high street and that 'Trebor' is 'Robert' spelt backwards.

From conversation with the group travel and entry to attractions came out as desirable awards a train ticket or mini bus hire - once the history of Maidstone is exhausted there's Chatham, Rochester, Eastbourne, Canterbury and hastings.

We've also done our first tests, with members of Backmob, of the Qualitative index, a tool to help mobbers be aware of their own physical and mental improvement as well as a way to report this improvement to the system. For a very early stage things went well but it's going to need some work.

Back in London we've been pushing ahead with prototyping the catalogue so that we are able to get responses to a first prototype the week after next. You can see work in progress on the Kent Lyons development extranet.

Chris Vanstone | LINK | HEALTH PROJECT | COMMENTS (0)

January 27, 2005

Diabetes Design Week 1 Report: Testing Initial Concepts

We started the week with an initial prototype of a tool (a deck of cards) which we hoped could be used across the board by patients and professionals and which would be supported by service redesign work that used this tool as an access route to various different services.
From our initial prototyping with patients and professionals we have developed these ideas and have seen that
Whilst:
. The key principle of providing a way for patients to set their agenda holds true
. We are still positive about the idea of the deck of cards as a valuable tool
We also need to be aware that in addition:
.There is a requirement for a new set of motivational interviewing and "people" based skills and training that can fill the space between existing services
. That some of these skills should come from new resources which form a new tier of care between GP's and the Diabetes Centre
. The cards are not a universal entry point for these services but that they are one of a series of tools which can help patients to set their own agenda
. We need to ensure that the tools are developed to reflect the environment in which they will be used
We are working on these ideas but just a reminder the next few weeks are critical so any comments from people who have been involved (or others) will help us to develop our thinking.

| LINK | HEALTH PROJECT | COMMENTS (1)

January 20, 2005

Activmob Week 2 Report: Feedback and Motivation

We started this week with two workshops that have moved the project on no end. There have also been four - count them - mob meetings this week, two dog mobs and Timemob and a Backmob. And while we're on stats the request for unfaclilitated mob packs now totals 15.

Our first workshop tackled motivations, we realised from our work with Anne Marie that people not only had to be motivated to start mobs, recruit members and keep them going but also to keep doing their activity and most difficult of all to push themselves further each time.

Our second workshop tackled the issues of feedback and measurement - how do we feed back to show and encourage progress, what do we base our rewards on and what do we need to measure to show an increase in activity from the perspective of Kent County Council.

Chris Vanstone | LINK | HEALTH PROJECT | COMMENTS (0)

January 14, 2005

Activmob Week 1 Report: Meet the mobs

The week got off to a good start with the return of our first postcard requests for our Activmob pack from someone who want's to start a Kickboxing mob, a result of all the flyering we did last week. By the end of the week we've had around another 8 requests for packs.

We spent Tuesday and Wednesday on site meeting our 3 mob instigators in their homes. Doug, a landscape archaeologist is starting a mob called Timemob . He's organising weekly walks in the area that are open to anyone and will cover a particular period each week - roman ruins, dinosaurs, houses of famous people and even ghost walks.

Chris Vanstone | LINK | HEALTH PROJECT | COMMENTS (1)

January 13, 2005

Every police force should have a Design Champion

"There needs to be nothing short of a revolution in the design of police buildings" according to Ben Rogers of ippr. Re-Inventing the Police Station: Police-Public Relations, Reassurance and the Future of the Police Estate, was published by ippr last week. The report claims that the design of police stations is a barrier to good public service, and has failed to keep pace with changing times. Police stations are intimidating and alienating places to visit and their design could undermine the Government's plans for more personalised and responsive public services - the report can be downloaded from ippr's website

Jude | LINK | PUBLIC SERVICES | COMMENTS (0)

On-line diabetes consultation

The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Diabetes is running a public consultation to find out about people living with diabetes in the UK. The Hansard Society was commissioned to monitor and moderate the consultation and have established an online discussion forum to gather evidence beyond official statistics, and widen the pool of people involved in the consultation process. They are not looking for expert views but rather aiming to gather stories and concerns that may help shape future policy.
The consultation runs until Friday 28 January 2005. All contributions will be summarised and reported to the All-Party Group, disseminated to the media and interested stakeholders when the consultation finishes.

Jude | LINK | HEALTH | COMMENTS (0)

January 7, 2005

Activmobs Week 0 report: We've got a team

It's been a hectic start back but week 0 of our 6 week project in Kent has been a good one - this report is the first of a series of updates on our project as it progresses. Our new years' resolution is to make this our most open project yet, we'll be sharing details of our approach, our research and our difficulties. We'll posting work in progress and asking for your comments.

I hope to keep the posts concise and include stuff that's actually interesting to those of you on the outside - however this one's going to require a bit of an extended entry. Read more to find out about the aims of our project, what an Activmob is and the team we're working with.

Chris Vanstone | LINK | HEALTH PROJECT | COMMENTS (1)

January 5, 2005

Creative Trainer Workshop - designers and NHS staff welcome

The Creative Trainer Workshop is being developed to encourage entrepreneurial spirit within frontline NHS staff. Empowering frontline staff to run service and communication design improvement projects. Providing them with the skills and confidence to nurture and develop their idea into reality. thinkpublic would like to invite designers and NHS staff of all levels to help shape the contents of The Creative Trainer.
RSVP: deborah@thinkpublic.com

Jude | LINK | HEALTH | COMMENTS (0)