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Health Projects Team
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Sheffield is one of the greenest cities in Europe with an enviable network of parks, open spaces, woodland and countryside that link into its most urban areas. This network of green space offers one of the last free and accessible leisure resources available to local people and a chance to enjoy nature on your own doorstep.
The Health Project Team is working to encourage more local people to be active more often, with a view to improving health, well being and quality of life.
Health professionals recognise that a regular, weekly pattern of physical activity can reduce the risk of a number of serious medical conditions including Type 2 diabetes, obesity, some forms of cancer, coronary heart disease, stroke, depression and osteoporosis. Increased physical activity also improves quality of life as it maintains independence, increases energy levels, encourages social contact, improves sleep, increases self-esteem and confidence and promotes a positive 'feelgood' factor.
The British Heart Foundation and the Countryside Agency have joined forces to create the ‘Walking the way to health initiative’. The aim is to get more people walking in their local community with benefits to their health and the environment. In Sheffield the project is managed by the Parks and Countryside Ranger Service
Please follow the links on the left to find out more about the project. A full list of weekly health walks is available to download.
Background
Sheffield is a city of about 512,000 people, which contains areas of significant multiple deprivations. It is a city of stark contrasts. Many people in the more deprived parts of the city have become isolated, socially excluded or no longer have the ambition to improve their circumstances. The impact of recent economic history (e.g. the decline of the steel industry) and the social geography of Sheffield are clearly manifest in the health of the population. The most deprived parts of the city are experiencing rising rates of ill health and mortality relative to England, whilst the least deprived localities are improving relative to England. Research shows that the link between low levels of income and high levels of ill health/mortality at locality level is clearly demonstrated in Sheffield's deprived areas.
There has been a significant change from just advocating 'exercise and 'sport' towards focussing on 'physical activity'. This acknowledges that although exercise and sport are beneficial to health there is potentially more benefit in increasing everyday routine activity levels. This change in emphasis has implications for the provision of local services and the promotion and development of new initiatives. It is important that physical activity plays a key role in 'primary prevention' - maintaining healthy communities and preventing health problems - not just the role that physical activity can play in helping people to recover or cope with ill health. Walking is beginning to play a central role in creating a healthier nation. Evidence increasingly shows its many benefits and walking for health schemes are now being taken seriously, with new schemes appearing across the country.
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