Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) across Forth Valley are taking part in a new national initiative to encourage patients to get more active.

Staff, including physiotherapists, podiatrists and dieticians, will now be asking patients about the amount of physical activity they are managing to do and provide activity advice specifically tailored to the patient’s particular needs and condition.

The initiative, which has been developed by the Scottish Government and NHS Health Scotland in partnership with frontline staff, is supported by a new set of online physical activity training materials and resources.

A new booklet for patients called “Get Active…your way, every day!” which gives handy tips on everything from age, gender and condition-appropriate exercise to examples of 10-minute physical activities that can be easily incorporated into daily life has also been developed by NHS Health Scotland.

Over the next year advice sheets for various conditions from Alzheimer’s to cancer will be made available so that health professionals can use these in consultations to provide guidance for patients who are looking to get more active.

NHS Forth Valley’s AHP Manager Sheila Wason said:

 AHPs across Scotland have made a pledge to support raising the profile of physical activity and we welcome the introduction of this new initiative to help patients get more active. It will help staff carry out a discussion also know as a ‘brief intervention’ to find out how active patients actually are as well as making it easier to provide appropriate information and advice.  We plan to roll out the use of these new resources over the next few months and undertake further work and training to ensure we have a consistent approach to promoting physical activity across Forth Valley.”