Twelve months ago, LSCft made history by setting up the first secure parkrun event at a mental health facility in the UK.
Based at our medium security hospital, Guild Lodge in Whittingham, the course was created with the aim of promoting physical and mental wellness, reducing stigma and bringing patients and colleagues together with a common goal – to improve.
The event encourages walkers, runners and volunteers to attend and complete the course in the way that works for them. Almost 100 colleagues and patients have taken part so far, achieving 49 personal bests (PBs) and clocking up an impressive 1,420,000 metres. For context, that’s the distance between London and Rome.
But physical improvements aside (and they have been plentiful), the real differences our colleagues have noted have been in the overall presentation of our patients, with parkrun improving their moods and allowing them the opportunity to challenge negative thoughts.
The success of Guild parkrun was celebrated at the one-year anniversary on Saturday (12 July).
There was cake waiting for participants at the finish line and a speech from Event Director and Associate Director of Social Work, Mike Holt, who founded the event.
In December 2023, Mike attended a presentation by Professor Brett Smith. Brett was presenting his award-winning project: Moving Social Work, which focuses on increasing activity and the benefits this generates for mind and body, creating resources and strategies for social workers to deploy as part of practice.
Mike said:
“The project really resonated with me, and over lunch it stimulated a conversation with some of the other delegates.
I spoke about how running outdoors had positively benefited me, mentally and physically, when I’d put on some weight during the lockdowns in 2020. And how I had transformed our staff football team, the Whittingham Warriors, into a running group when the league was stood down. One of the delegates I was talking to was Katy Cleece, the Social Work research Lead in the Trust, and parkrun ambassador for several events in the region and our coalition that day was the start of the parkrun journey.”
As part of his speech, Mike surprised one of our regular parkrun participants by presenting her with the first 25 event milestone merchandise.
V (not her real name), a patient on one of our step down wards, earnt herself the 25-event milestone t-shirt, after attending almost every Saturday since the event began. In that time she has progressed from beginner runner to being the fastest female on the course and completing her first marathon, something she describes as a “bucket list moment”.
V said:
“I love keeping busy and being here I have the benefit of time. I don’t have family or employment commitments making it hard to train or make time for activities. People talk about the runner’s high but it’s more than that. Running has boosted my self-esteem, made me healthier, given me a sense of achievement and allowed me to make friends with people I wouldn’t have ordinarily met. At parkrun I still get asked what department I work in – people automatically think I’m staff and one of the best things about parkrun is that there’s no judgment or titles. I’ve even been invited out for breakfast with some of the staff members after the run.”
In the run up to the anniversary, evaluations have taken place which have found: 100% of those attending report enjoying the event, half have experienced improved mental health, half experienced increased motivation and nine in 10 have reported improved social and relationship benefits.
Mike concluded:
“It was great to see so many people down at parkrun for the anniversary and to share some of little and big successes we’ve had over the last 12 months. A special shout out needs to go to our staff volunteers continue to support the event, as without them it would not be possible. This includes Phil Horner, Jen Turner, and Karmini McCann who are regulars.
I’m proud to be part of this movement and look forward to what the next year brings as we continue our journey.”
Social Worker and parkrun Ambassador Katy Cleece is exploring the role parkrun can play for people who have had contact with adult or children’s social care. She’s documented her thoughts in a parkrun blog and in a short video.
