Mental Health Swims in Parliament
On Monday 18th September, Mental Health Swims was invited to the Houses of Parliament for the launch of the new Swim England report, ‘Value of Swimming’. The report revealed that water-based activities helped to generate more than £2.4 billion of social value in 2022, as well as preventing 78,500 cases of ill health. With so many pools being closed, Swim England’s campaign ‘Don’t Put A Cap On It’ calls on the Government to ensure that the country has a network of sustainable pools and blue spaces to support the activities and sports that rely on them, as well as increasing access to outdoor swimming opportunities.
Mental Health Swims is a case study in the report with the recent success of pilot programme, ‘Swim Together’ – a partnership with Swim England, Everyone Active and Dr Hussain Al-Zubaidi with his team at the lifestyle clinic as part of the Leamington Spa PCN. The team trialled bringing a Mental Health Swims style peer support group to an indoor swimming pool, so that those who cannot access outdoor swimming, or who feel more comfortable inside, could reap the benefits of peer support.
Mental Health Swims shared their current working model with the pilot group and provided swim host training and insurance cover. Swim Together swim hosts acted as friendly guides during sessions, from meeting participants at a designated place outside the pool to reassuring and pointing out where to go to change, explaining what will happen next and generally being there during the swim session and afterwards. By joining a group like Swim Together the leisure centre becomes familiar and feels less intimidating and the hope is that this will lead to independent visits in between sessions.
The pilot has been a great success and we’re currently working with all parties to see where we can take Swim Together next.
Rachel and Sarah had a great time networking at the event and enjoyed meeting so many people who are passionate about swimming!
You can read Swim England’s Value of Swimming report here:
