How Manchester Mind and Moodswings use movement in their mental health provision

By GM Moving | 20 January 2025 | TAGS: Health and Care Integration, health

GM Moving, alongside many of our partners, are working to align and fully integrate physical activity alongside better mental health provision.

When we move, we feel better. Movement is the foundation of good mental health, wellbeing, and thriving, sustainable communities.

Sport England data shows active lives would save England £780million on reduced mental health service use while Mind Over Mountains is the new official charity partner of RED January.

Right now though, movement, physical activity, and sport aren’t accessible to everyone. Movement has been designed out of life, and our health services.

To understand how mental health providers are building movement and physical activity back into their service offers, GM Moving spoke to Moodswings and Manchester Mind.

Read more our case study alongside Moodswings and Manchester Mind here.

Our work in this area isn’t new and we’ve been working with our evaluation partners Substance to learn more about how we can design moving back into health and social care.

You can read their eight recommendations for how we work together here and you’ll see many of them shining through in our case study with Moodswings and Manchester Mind above:

Data and Insight

In our conversations, we found that motivation to embed movement into service provision stems from a deep understanding of the evidence around how physical activity can support people’s mental health.

Staff at Manchester Mind reflected on how understanding the evidence around movement and mental health gave them confidence and motivation to put forward the idea of a walking group.

Relatable communications

There is clear value in talking with your own staff and understanding their relationship with physical activity as this supports how they engage and communicate with service users.

Trusted transmitters

Similarly, a real peer-led approach, and communications which resonate with their audience, made their walking offers more welcoming, relatable, and accessible.

Authentic strategic leadership, enabling collective leadership

At Manchester Mind, there was supportive and flexible strategic leadership which supported the walking group to get off the ground.

There was a willingness to act on people’s motivations and saying yes to new ideas.

Physical activity as a core priority

For Moodswings, physical activity is inseparable from their provision ethos which is rooted in the ‘5 Ways to Wellbeing’.

Their ethos combines a positive outlook with the threads of 5 Ways To Wellbeing, with physical activity addressing all the components of this concept.

Read the full case study on Manchester Mind and Moodswings below.

Downloads

• Movement And Mental Health Case Study