Since the country went into lockdown and our health provision was suspended our Health team have been spending their time supporting participants on the National Exercise Referral Scheme (NERS) to continue to be active at home.

The NERS instructors have been busy contacting all participants to offer home-based exercise programmes and providing ongoing support to ensure participants maintain good health and wellbeing during this difficult time.

The team have received lots of positive comments and messages from participants expressing their gratitude for the support NERS have offered during the pandemic.

Here are some of the comments/messages we have received;

"Since doing the exercises in the class as well as the home programme, I am now able to walk a little bit around the house without my crutches. I was told I would never do this, so this is a big achievement for me. I am ever so grateful for your help and support.”

“I have been doing the warm-up exercises of PSI 3-4 times per week and going through the whole session 2-3 times per week. My wife recently commented that she thought that I was walking much better than before and I was not holding onto furniture etc for support as I had before”

"Mary says that she so happy she joined the NERS scheme, it really has benefited her. Mary walks most days, she's also following the Otago full exercise program. Mary has said that our calls are very important and that her and her husband look forward to the next call. She has also been telling her friends about the NERS scheme, saying that they must get referred.
Mary Morgan

NERS programme in the future

The Health team are spending a lot of time developing recovery plans to be able to resume the NERS programme as soon as it is safe to do so. We will continue to follow Government guidance and will have in place clear processes to ensure the safety of our staff and customers, which is our main priority. When the service resumes, we are still going to have to adhere to social distancing guidance and we will ensure this happens and that cleaning measures are in place. We will have a gradual phased return to the service, and this is something we will update you on closer to the time. The NERS team will continue to keep in contact with those on the scheme with regards to Home programmes and send any new on-demand content that participants can do at home.

Actif Anywhere - Live streaming platform 

We are close to launching our brand new live streaming platform, Actif Anywhere.  This platform will enable us to deliver our mainstream fitness classes to our members. We are also looking at the possibility of using the same platform for our NERS classes meaning that participants will be able to join us from the comfort of their homes.  These sessions allow participants to interact with the instructor and other class members as we know the social interaction within our sessions is important to all.