Healthy living

We work on a wide range of healthy living projects within Bristol to help increase participation and encourage people to maintain or increase their activity levels to be fit and healthy:

The Active Choices Scheme (Bristol's referral scheme), is currently run at 13 sites in Bristol. It is a physical activity referral scheme for people with stable medical conditions. Users are given support and guidance from a physical activity instructor for 12 weeks to help them get into regular physical activity. Health professionals who can access the scheme on behalf of their patient include GPs, physiotherapists, hospital consultants and practice nurses.

The Bristol Active Life Project is a physical activity referral scheme for people who have experienced or are living with a long-term mental illness. The project provides a range of activities such as badminton, walking and football in a supportive environment with qualified instructors who have undergone mental health awareness training. Sessions are accessible by referral from a health professional.

Cardiac Rehabilitation is a programme of education and exercise to help people to manage their heart condition. The sessions are phase IV rehabilitation and provide ongoing exercise and maintenance of lifestyle changes following a cardiac event. Sessions are run by fully qualified  instructors specialising in cardiac rehabilitation.

Change 4 Life is a society-wide movement to prevent people from becoming overweight by encouraging them to eat better and move more. It provides suggestions for keeping fit, along with healthy eating and nutritional information in an easy to understand format. Activities are suitable for all age ranges and lots of information is provided on how to access activities local to you.

The MEND: (mind, exercise, nutrition, do it) programme is a free programme to help families get fitter, healthier and happier. It is aimed at children aged between 7 and 13 who are above their ideal weight to learn about food and discover fun ways to get fit. Parents/carers attend the sessions with the children and all sessions are free of charge.

Pulmonary Rehabilitation is a combination of exercise and education sessions aimed at people with breathing difficulty, most commonly those with COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), but people with other chronic lung disease may benefit.  The programme includes 6-8 weeks of exercise and education and some time either side of this for assessments with a qualified instructor.

Trim trail exercise stations have recently been installed in a number of local parks in Bristol. They consist of pieces of outdoor exercise equipment such as chin up bars, balance bars and sit up bars to add a fun way to increase activity levels in the parks. The equipment can be used to do various exercises that can develop balance, strength and coordination.

The GAP project has recruited and trained a team of volunteers over the age of 50 to deliver safe, enjoyable, gentle group activity sessions across a variety of venues that older people can get to and where they feel comfortable. The scheme is no longer recruiting volunteers but the activity sessions continue to run at various locations.

Walking for Health Bristol is our health walks programme which provides people with the opportunity to take part in short, safe, sociable walks within local communities. It is part of a nationwide scheme to get more people walking. Walks are run all over Bristol and range from short gentle strolls to longer, more sustained walks. There is something for everyone, even complete beginners or those recovering from illness or injury and all walks are led by a trained walk leader.