Fun and Games as a Catalyst for Getting Communities Moving - Intelligent Health [Podcast Series]
[:55] Dr. Bantham introduces her guest, Dr. William Bird
Dr. Bird is the CEO and Founder of Intelligent Health.
He is also a General Practitioner and the creator of Beat the Street, Green Gyms and Health Walks.
[1:18] A mission to create active and vibrant communities
“And that technology got them excited. And that’s how we started to really get large numbers of people. Sometimes in Sheffield—we’ve just finished a few weeks ago—we got 60,000 people playing within about two weeks. So that's huge numbers. And a lot of these people are from very deprived areas. They're very obese, they're very inactive. And we're managing to get them, and that’s what's really exciting. The Health Walks was dealing with a little bit more the middle class, not quite reaching the more deprived communities. But this one really was. So it was technology and trying to get this mass participation, place based, that got me excited about it.”
[5:50] Success and accessibility to different population subgroups
“And we know that the real reasons are nothing to do with I've got no time and I've got no money. We know those excuses are excuses. They're just barriers people put up. Because the real reason is they put it as a low priority and they put it as low priority because they usually haven't got the confidence. It’s an unknown world. And they can't quite see it fitting into their life.”
[9:46] Fun and physical activity
“And we just don't think sometimes. We make physical activity like a tablet, because that's what we're used to as doctors. But physical activity shouldn't be anything extra. It should be part of your well-being, it should be part of your life. It should give you the vibrancy and the additional fun in life. And if you can’t do that then you are going to fail.”
[12:40] Mobilizing communities
“And that is, I think, what you have to do to gradually get people to start to explore, give them confidence and get to know their area so they can take their children or take their parents or go themselves.”
[16:06] Physical activity as a means to an end
“And that's why I feel that physical activity should always be a means to the end and the end is the experience people have. The physical activity is just a method of getting there. If it becomes the endpoint and we talk about, ‘I'm going to get you fit,’ as you know, most people run away….”
[20:48] Cross-sector collaboration
“So we've got this real gradient of the people who need it less are the ones who use it the most, and the people who need it the most are the ones who use it less...But working with these groups, and we have something called asset based community development, ABCD, which turned everything on its head saying that the community are the experts, they will give you the solutions, you build up the trust, and then eventually they will come out and help you.”
[26:28] Impact of the pandemic on access to outdoor physical activity opportunities
“It's been a really incredible journey, I think, since the first lockdown when you saw initially a big divide between the more affluent and tended to be more white, going out a lot more with their families. And they're on their bikes all the time. And they were going to parks and green spaces. And those from more deprived communities, and particularly those BAME communities, were hunkering down and not moving. So you saw physical activity actually increased a little bit, but that was because the divide got bigger.”
