Southampton Mobility Volunteer Programme

Launched by UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON · Nov 2, 2015

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

Background: Previous research has shown that low mobility among older people in hospital is associated with poor health outcomes including worsening physical function and increasing dependence in activities of daily living. There is evidence that the implementation by hospital staff of a mobility or exercise programme for older people in the acute care setting is feasible with promising outcomes including improvement in physical function, shorter hospital stay and reduced nursing home admissions. However employing additional therapy or nursing staff is costly and there are well-recognised s...

Gender

ALL

Eligibility criteria

• Inclusion Criteria:
• • deemed appropriate by the medical team and therapists to receive a physical activity intervention by trained volunteers and able to mobilise with or without a walking aid.
• Exclusion Criteria:
• • patients normally resident in a nursing home, or who were immobile prior to admission;
• • patients who are in a side room for infection control reasons;
• • palliative care patients;
• • patients deemed inappropriate for the physical activity intervention by the medical or therapy teams.