THE ROYAL Colleges of Physicians in Edinburgh and the Observatory for Sport in Scotland (OSS) will host a joint event on 3 September where health professionals from across faculties in Scotland will come together with government, sport and communities to discuss how sport and health work effectively together to tackle inactivity and improve health and wellbeing.
The event, being staged on Zoom due to Covid uncertainties, is part of the OSS National Conversation on Sport’s Role in Society, launched earlier this year. The three-hour morning event will focus on two key issues: social prescribing and the co-location of health and sport and leisure services.
David Ferguson, OSS CEO stated: “At the OSS, we seek to bring together key stakeholders and platform discussion around how all kinds of sport activity can help people in different sectors to improve health and wellbeing. Social prescribing, where we look at alternatives to drug treatments that can help people to take control of behaviours and create sustainable lifestyle changes, have been popular all over the world, but it remains a patchy, fractured network in Scotland with mixed results.
“The issue of co-location of services is another exciting area that is being developed in different parts of the country, where some creativity in planning, development and refurbishment of facilities can breathe new life into old, unsustainable facilities but also create new hubs in communities that bring people together and enable health professionals to get to people perceived to be ‘hard-to-reach’. There are great examples of where this can play a key role in improving health and wellbeing, and at a time when national and local government are under real pressure around the viability of public buildings, it is crucial that we can share good practice far and wide.
“This event is merely one step in that process, but an important part of our National Conversation.”
The event will be opened by new Health and Sport Minister Maree Todd MSP, and will be free to attend. Details on how you can join the event will be announced soon.
Thought Piece from Charlie Raeburn for Reform Scotland