Kenneth Gardner
GETTING CITIZENS to exercise more regularly requires the combined effort of several sectors in the society. Health practitioners, operating in various public, non-profit and private settings, are in an excellent position to encourage and assist individuals to become more physically active by providing a variety of fitness programmes.
As we strive to maintain our health care services and contain costs, we need to make a concerted effort to achieve and maintain wellness. To achieve this we need to:
Encourage health care providers to prescribe appropriate exercise in weight loss regimens as a complementary treatment modality in the management of chronic diseases, and give geriatric patients more detailed information on appropriate physical activity.
Encourage community service agencies to adopt or develop a wellness programme.
Provide programmes that emphasise activities for all members of the community, rather than just competitive sport for a few.
Encourage worksite-based fitness programmes that are linked to other health enhancement components, including an active outreach effort.
Increase the availability of facilities such as fitness trails, parks and aquatic sports.
Upgrade existing facilities, especially in depressed neighbourhoods, and involve the citizens at all levels of planning.
Establish local, regional and national councils on health promotion and wellness.
Provide enticements to develop exercise programmes. Tangible rewards should be available for those maintaining healthy lifestyles.
Encourage and reward the workplace that educates and provides opportunities and facilities, including flexible work hours to allow employees to exercise during the work day.
Provide regular public education opportunities to sensitise persons who are unable to access information otherwise.
Emphasise lifetime activities that have positive influences on health.
Provide regular public education to sensitise individuals to the medicinal value and joy of physical exercise and wellness. The archaic practice of using exercise as punishment should be emphatically discouraged.
Bombard the public with empirical data of the health benefits of exercise.
Celebrate or recognise the importance of exercise in a concrete way, for example, have an exercise week or exercise month.
Educate the public how to utilise what we have, how to improvise and how to make exercise a part of our regular lifestyle.
Minimise civil disorder and crime to make it safer to go out and exercise.
Promote civic and national pride in the development of a healthy nation.
Encourage workshops, health fairs, and training sessions to educate the public.
Solicit community involvement in all aspects of exercise programmes, and link participation and success with health care credits.
Kenneth Gardner is an exercise physiologist at the G.C. Foster College of Physical Education; email: yourhealth@gleanerjm.com.
