1. Volunteer Walk Leader
Training Course
Walking for Health
[insert Cascade Trainer name and
job title]
www.wfh.naturalengland.co.uk
2. • Aims of the day
• Natural England
• Walking for Health
Section 1:
Welcome and Background
www.wfh.naturalengland.co.ukwww.wfh.naturalengland.co.uk
3. The Training Day
Aims
of the
day
Natural England &
Walking for Health
Physical activity and
health
Benefits and barriers to
walking
Planning, organising and
delivering a walk
Walk Leader’s role
www.wfh.naturalengland.co.uk
4. Aims of Today
• Be aware of the health benefits of regular
walking.
• Be familiar with the paperwork required.
• Know how to plan a route and recognise
hazards.
• Understand the role of the leader at the start,
during and at the end of a health walk.
• Be confident and happy to lead a health walk
www.wfh.naturalengland.co.uk
5. The Role of Natural England
“More people inspired to enjoy, understand
and act for the natural environment”
This is achieved through the Walking for
Health programme which aims to;
“ Encourage people to walk more in their
local area to improve their health”
www.wfh.naturalengland.co.uk
6. A Natural Health Service
To enable every GP or Community Nurse to
be able to signpost patients to an
approved health walk or outdoor activity
programme
“ In order to maintain a healthy weight we need to
both eat well and move more”
www.wfh.naturalengland.co.uk
7. Walking for Health
• There are more than 600
health walk schemes across
the country
• With over 3800 active
volunteer walk leaders; and
• 5700 walks being led; and
• Over 69,000 regular walkers.
www.wfh.naturalengland.co.uk
8. WfH in [insert your locality]
[This slide should be customised to provide
information on your local WfH programme]
• When the scheme started
• The number of walks and where they are
• Number of regular walkers
• What you want the trainees to aim for
www.wfh.naturalengland.co.uk
9. • Regional Adviser
• Training and Toolkit
• Insurance
• Accreditation
• Evaluation
• Marketing materials
• Electronic newsletters
• Website
WfH Toolkit of Support
www.wfh.naturalengland.co.uk
11. Section 2: Physical Activity and
Health
• What is health?
• Benefits and barriers
• How much activity?
• Why walking?
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12. What is Health?
‘A state of complete physical, mental and social
well-being and not merely the absence of
disease or infirmity’ (WHO definition)
Physical
Social
Environ-
mental
Mental
www.wfh.naturalengland.co.uk
13. Influences on health
General socioeconomic,
cultural and environmental
conditions
Living and working
conditions
Social and community
networks
Individual lifestyle factors
Age, gender and
heredity factors
www.wfh.naturalengland.co.uk
14. How is our Health?
A number of medical conditions are
increasing in the general population,
including…
Mental health problems
Obesity
Diabetes
Coronary Heart Disease
www.wfh.naturalengland.co.uk
15. Physical Inactivity and (ill) Health
Being physically inactive
Is one of the leading causes of illness and
death in the UK
Costs the NHS £8.2 billion per year
Has the same effect on risk of heart
disease as smoking 20 cigarettes per day.
o Source HSE report 2008
www.wfh.naturalengland.co.uk
16. How Risky is Inactivity?
Risk factors for coronary heart disease
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Inactivity Cholesterol Blood
Pressure
Smoking
Female
Male
Percentage
of population
at risk
Source: HSE Statistics 2008
www.wfh.naturalengland.co.uk
17. Adults participating in activity for at
least 10 minutes in last 4 weeks
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Men Women
• Adults meeting the
CMO
recommendations
for activity:
• Men – 39%
• Women – 29%
(Source HSE 2008)
www.wfh.naturalengland.co.uk
19. How Much Activity Is Enough?
5 x 30
Minutes
moderate intensity activity a week
www.wfh.naturalengland.co.uk
20. Why Is Walking So Good?
Most people can join in…
No special equipment
Low impact
Varied pace
Increase pace/distance gradually
Many physical and mental health
benefits
Not age or cost-related
Socialising!
www.wfh.naturalengland.co.uk
21. Why Is Walking So Good?
At any pace
o Mental health benefits
o Helps to prevent diabetes and control weight
o Increases ‘good’ cholesterol
o Benefits immune system / reduces bowel cancer
o Reduces risk factors for falls in the elderly
o Can help reduce progression of osteoarthritis/osteoporosis
o Improves muscle strength
At a ‘brisk’ pace
o Improves functioning of heart and lungs
o Reduces blood pressure
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22. Mental Health and Well-being
Being physically active can:
Improve psychological well
being in older adults
Enhance self-esteem
Alleviate short-term stress
Aid recovery from stress-
related illness
Decrease likelihood of clinical
depression
www.wfh.naturalengland.co.uk
23. Section 3: Leading a Health
Walk
• What is a WfH walk?
• Demonstration walk
• Components of a health walk
• Moderate intensity walking
www.wfh.naturalengland.co.ukwww.wfh.naturalengland.co.uk
24. What is a Walking for Health Walk?
“A purposeful,
brisk walk
undertaken on
a regular basis,
as part of a led
group”
www.wfh.naturalengland.co.uk
26. Components of a Health Walk
• Outdoor Health
Questionnaire and
register
• Warm up
• Brisk walk
• Cool down
• Socialise.
www.wfh.naturalengland.co.uk
28. The Main Message
Walk at a brisk pace which makes you;
• Breathe a little quicker
• Feel warmer
• Have a slightly quicker heart beat
This moderate intensity pace should be
comfortable and you should still be able to
talk!
www.wfh.naturalengland.co.uk
Editor's Notes
This is an Essential slide
Purpose: This slide should be on display before you start the training so people know they are in the right place.
Delivery notes: Customise this slide to include your name and job title (if appropriate).
You may also wish to have the WfH DVD showing in the background before the training starts.
This slide should take no more than 2 minutes to complete.
What to say:
You should spend a few minutes introducing yourself, your role and experience.
This is an Essential slide
Purpose: Introductory section header slide. This section is made up of slides 2 – 10 and will take approximately 60 minutes to complete.
Delivery notes: This slide should take no more than 5 minutes to complete.
Have this slide in the background when you welcome the trainees, outline the course and address domestics. Refer to it when you introduce what will be covered in the this section of the VWL training course.
What to say:
Start by welcoming the Volunteer Walk Leaders (VWL) and thanking them for giving up their time to attend the training.
You can then introduce the course outline
You should address domestics such as;
fire alarm and evacuation procedures,
location of toilets,
mobile phones,
room temperature,
establish ground rules, and
set out the finishing time and timing of breaks.
Following this you may then want to ask people attending the course to give a brief introduction of themselves, sharing their; name, employer, how they are involved with Walking for Health (WfH).
Key points to summarise:
This is an Essential slide There is an Activity with this slide
Purpose: This slide gives the trainees a clear outline of the key components of the day.
Delivery notes: This slide and activity should take no more than 15 minutes to complete.
What to say:
You might want to say something like;
The purpose of this day is to make sure that you are able to lead a safe, appropriate and enjoyable group walk.
We will be covering a lot of information over the course of the day so please ask questions as we go along.
This will be interactive training including a demonstration health walk, role play and group tasks so please do participate as fully as you can.
The five key sections that we will cover in the training include;
the role of Natural England and the Walking for Health (WfH) programme
health conditions and being physically active;
the benefits and barriers to walking;
planning, organising and leading a group walk;
the VWL role and responsibilities.
Activity:
Once you have talked through this slide do an ice breaker. Allow 5 – 10 minutes for this.
Choose from activity numbers 1, Walking Bingo, activity number 2, Trivial Pursuit or Activity number 3, What I saw, depending on the size of your group.
Key points to summarise
Recognise that a lot of information will be covered over the course of the day.
Encourage the volunteers to tell you if they don’t understand or if you are teaching the content too quickly or slowly.
This is an Essential slide There is an Activity with this slide
Purpose: To outline and discuss the learning aims of the day
Delivery notes: As this slide appears make sure that only the title is displayed [not the content]. CTs should refer to the website regularly for more information on NE strategies as it will be added online as it is developed. This slide should take no longer than 12 mins
What to say:
You might want to say something like: I want to take this opportunity to find out what you want to get from today’s training, and to share with you the learning aims for the day.
Then you can say: Using the initials from Health Walk have a brief conversation with your neighbours and find out your;
H = hopes: what you hope to get from the training (wants, needs and expectations)
W = worries: any worries you have about the training (concerns, fears, experience etc.)’
Give them 5 minutes to do this then ask each group for one hope then go round again and ask for one worry, write these on a flipchart. Then ask for any other hopes or worries. Take no longer than 10 minutes. At this time also ask for any ground rules such as time-keeping, mobiles, listening, letting others speak, asking questions etc.
Once you have completed this you may want to pick out any specific expectations that the training will not address and explain why they sit outside of the training.
The slide content will display with a mouse click. You may want to say something like;
You can see that these are the key aims for today’s training.
It seems that most of the expectations and concerns that we’ve just listed reflect these aims. At the end of the day I will come back to this list to make sure that I’ve addressed everyone’s expectations and concerns and met the aims of the day.
Key points to summarise
Learning aims for the days training.
That most of the expectations and concerns identified reflect the aims on the slide.
If expectations do not match the aims, explain why they will not be met by the training.
Explain that at the end of the day the flipchart list and aims will be revisited to check that they have been met.
JM TO CHECK THAT THIS IS STILL PART OF THE STRATEGIC OUTCOMES OF NE
This is an Essential slide
Purpose: To introduce Natural England and their role
Delivery notes: This slide gives a brief overview on the role of Natural England and the Walking for Health initiative. Visit the website (www.naturalengnald.org.uk) if you would like more information on the role of Natural England. This slide will take 5 minutes.
What to say:
You may want to say something like;
NE is the government’s adviser for the natural environment. It aims to;
establish a healthy natural environment;
inspire people to value and conserve the natural environment;
support sustainable use of the natural environment; and
secure an environmental future. (Strategic Direction 2008-13)
You might then go on to say;
Natural England believes that being active outdoors improves health and wellbeing, whilst valuing and conserving the natural environment.
The Walking for Health (WfH) initiative is one of the key programmes that NE implements to support people in accessing their local, natural environment to help them improve their health and wellbeing.
The programme was originally founded by Dr William Bird (OBE) in Sonning Common Health Centre, Oxfordshire in April 1995. The national project was launched in 2000 and has encouraged many thousands of people to start walking. Dr William Bird is still involved in the programme and a staunch champion of walking in the natural environment.
Key points to summarise
Summarise the role of NE in aiming to get people to use and appreciate their natural environment more.
If you are not using slide 6 – A Natural Health Service – use the key points from that slide in this summary.
This is an Optional slide
Purpose: To introduce the concept of a natural health service and the Walk 4 Life campaign.
Delivery notes: Refer to the website or Learning Network if you would like more information on the Natural Health Service and Walk4life. This slide should take 5 minutes.
What to say: You might want to say something along the lines of;
The Walking for Health programme also forms part of Natural England’s Natural Health Service Campaign.
The aim of this campaign is to ensure that every one in the country has good access to green space and also that the NHS makes better use of it.
To achieve this NE are trying to;
increase the number of households that are within five minutes walk of an area of green space; and
make sure that every GP or community nurse is able to recommend patients to a local volunteer led walk or outdoor activity programme.
So again the WfH initiative has a key role to play in achieving these goals.
The benefits of walking to improving individuals health and in reducing the burden of ill health on the NHS is well evidenced. We know that for every £1 spent on establishing healthy walking schemes the NHS could save £7.18 in the cost of treating conditions such as heart disease, stroke and diabetes. (NEED TO SOURCE REFERENCES)
This is something which is recognised by the Department of Health so they have developed some change4life linked branding; Walk4life, which you can see on this slide.
DH has also provided Natural England with some resources to support the development of the WfH programme because it believes it’s one of the most cost effective ways to get people active
Key points to summarise:
The Department of Health has recognised how important Natural England’s Walking for Health programme is in getting people more active and the benefits of this to the National Health Service.
This is an Essential slide
Purpose: To give participants a sense of the size and reach of the WfH programme.
Delivery notes: Cover the main statistics as listed below. Refer to the website or Leaning Network if you would like more information on the Walking for Health programme. Spend only 5 minutes on this slide.
What to say:
Natural England’s Walking for Health (WfH) encourages you to enjoy your local natural spaces and benefit your health by taking part in health walks. They’re the largest national body promoting and setting the standards for led health walks.
You may want to say something along the lines of:
To date there are more than 600 health walk schemes across the country
There are over 3800 active volunteer walk leaders, and
There are over 5,700 walks being led; with over 69,000 regular walkers attending walks
enough mileage has been walked to circle the globe six times!
the aspiration is for there to be over 2 million walkers attending local volunteer lead health walks by 2012
If you haven’t already shown the WfH (DVD) video you may wish to show it here. The DVD is in the resource pack and is 10 minutes long. If you are showing it on a laptop you will need speakers.
Key points to summarise
Natural England’s Walking for Health (WfH) encourages you to enjoy your local natural spaces and benefit your health by taking part in health walks.
Natural England is the largest national body promoting and setting the standards for led health walks and by giving up your time, as a WfH volunteer you will help the programme to continue to grow and develop.
Much of the success is all down to volunteers like you – the Volunteer Walk Leaders
This is an optional slide
Purpose: To provide a summary of your local walking for health scheme.
Delivery notes: You may want to use this slide as an opportunity to give the volunteers some more information on how your local scheme operates.
This is also a good opportunity to interact with the groups to share which schemes they are from or which they hope to support or work with.
What to say
You can use this slide to provide participants with an overview of your local programme.
You may wish to include the following information;
When the scheme was first established/how long it has been running
The number of walks delivered and where they take place
The number of participants currently attending the walks
What it is you would like to ask the volunteers to aim for i.e. To lead one walk a week, month etc.
This is a good time to mention the postcard ‘pledge’ resource that will be used in the action planning activity at the end of the training day. This will be used to record their next steps which you (cascade trainer) will pass on to the relevant scheme coordinator.
Key points to summarise:
Summarise the range and number of walks in the local area and how to find out more.
This is an Essential slide
Purpose: To provide the volunteers with an overview of the support they get once the training has been completed.
Delivery Notes: this slide is best delivered as a brief overview of the support that is available and should take no longer than 5 minutes to complete.
What to say
You may want to say something like;
Once you have completed today’s training and qualified as a VWL you will benefit from;
Regional Advisers: access to Natural England’s WfH regional advisors who can provide you with further support, advice and training. In this area our advisors are ... [cite the name of your regional NE WfH advisor].
Training and toolkit: access to other types of training including workshops, outdoor health questionnaire, becoming a cascade trainer, quality assurance and database training.
Insurance: NE’s public liability insurance, this is something we will cover in more detail later on today.
Accreditation: Information and support on how to get your scheme accredited.
Evaluation: Access to information to help you evaluate the impact of your scheme, again we will cover this in more detail later on today.
Marketing materials: Access to marketing materials, news letters and information updates on the WfH website.
Access to a set of guidance notes on ‘How to set up a walk scheme’ published online.
Key points to summarise
In addition to the local scheme coordinator supporting the volunteers Natural England also offers a variety of support and information. Website:- www.wfh.naturalengland.org.uk
This is an Optional slide
Purpose: To show volunteers what the WfH website pages look like.
Delivery Notes:
Following on from slide 9 you may wish to insert a recent screen shot of the walking for health website, or a link to the site so that you can click on it during the presentation in order to show the participants. It can be helpful to show participants what the current website looks like so that they can get a sense of its content.
This should be very brief, only 1 minute or so.
What to say:
You might want to say something along the lines of;
This is the WfH website, you can get lots of really helpful information and resources here, including;
A walk finder, where you can find the nearest WfH group walk to you
Current news and local achievements
Leaflets such as Walk More Feel the Difference, which you can share with participants
Current and back dated copies of the newsletter.
Key points to summarise:
The usefulness of the website as an ongoing resource and information portal.
This is an Essential slide
Purpose: This is an introductory section header slide. This section is made up of slides 11 – 25 and should require approximately 86 – 90 minutes to complete in full.
Delivery notes: This slide should take no longer than 2 minutes to complete.
Training Manual: pages 5 -10
Activity: A number of activities are identified for each slide in this section. Each of these can be found in the Activity Resource Pack.
What to say:
In this section of the training course we will be looking at:
What ‘health’ means to different people. This should broaden your own ideas on what ‘health’ actually is, and help understand the different reasons why individuals may participate in a health walk.
How activity, and walking in particular, may benefit health and what barriers may be faced by individuals when they are trying to increase their activity levels.
How much activity we need to do in order to benefit our health and well-being.
Key points to summarise:
Following this section, you may want to revisit this slide to check that everyone has gathered relevant information and understands the main messages.
This is an Essential slide There is an Activity with this slide
Purpose: To understand what health means to different people, expand personal ideas about ‘health’, and help understand what motivates people to participate in a health walk.
Delivery notes: The title of the slide will appear first and prompts a ‘What is Health’ activity. This slide and activity should take no longer than 20 minutes to complete.
Activity: Choose either activity number 4, 5 or 7 from the Activity Resource Pack and allow 10 minutes for the task and 10 minutes for all groups to feedback. After the activity, summarise the ideas and beliefs about health that have been highlighted by the group during the activity then you can show the rest of the slide and discuss how the WHO definition of health covers all these aspects.
What to say: Say something like:
You can see that health is not just about physical fitness or the absence of illness/injury, health includes mental and social elements as well, so is much broader than just being physically well. The emphasis is on the whole person.
It also includes the environment such as access to green space, air quality and housing. Just living close to green space can help to improve health. Growing medical evidence shows that access to the natural environment improves health and wellbeing, prevents disease and helps people recover from illness.
Health is also about being fit for your life/fit for purpose, so depending on what people want to achieve or need to be able to do in daily life, it will be a very individual definition.
This means that as VWLs, we need to be aware that people may have very different reasons for coming on a health walk and it may not be ‘wanting to get physically fitter’. It might be that participants want to socialise, have some ’me-time’, get some fresh air, admire the scenery etc. All of these reasons are valid and should be respected.
The definition for The World Health Organisation covers all these aspects.
Key points to summarise:
Health is not just about being physically fit, different people will have different ideas about what health means to them and what aspects of health are important to them.
We need to recognise that health walk participants have a variety of reasons for coming on the walk. These are all valid and should be respected by the VWL and be reflected in the way that they lead the walk – relaxed, fun, etc
This is an Optional slide
Purpose: To discuss the wider influences, or determinants, of health. This may be very relevant when working in disadvantaged areas.
Delivery notes: You can show this slide and briefly discuss all points illustrated but the focus should be on the social and community networks as an important factor in health. Refer to the website or Learning Network for more information on each factor. This slide should take no longer than 5 minutes if using the group work.
What to say: You may want to say something like:
Can you think of ways that our health can be positively or negatively affected by these factors?
You can then go on to briefly discuss the answers and show how our health can be positively or negatively affected by each of these. Ensure you focus on NE relevant issues such as access to green space, biodiversity, regeneration etc.
Key points to summarise:
Health can be affected by a number of different factors
Some of these factors are outside a persons control e.g. age, genetics. Other factors we do have control over and should aim to make the most of these.
This is an Essential slide
Purpose: To highlight the prevalence of these specific conditions within the general population in the UK.
Delivery notes: This is an essential slide with general, background information only and should take no more than 3 minutes to complete so avoid spending too long on it.
Training Manual: If trainees want more information related to the conditions on the slide, there is more detail in the VWL manual on pages 6-7.
What to say:
One in four people is likely to experience a mental health issue every year. This ranges from 1% who are living with bi-polar disorder to more than 16% of the population who are living with depression and anxiety at any one time. The cost to the NHS, in terms of prescriptions, is £338 million annually and the cost of depression in lost economic output is £12 billion a year.
More than two thirds (66%) of women and three-quarters (75%) of men aged 55-74 years in England are overweight or obese.
Type 2 diabetes rate is set to double during 2010 and is linked to the rise in overweight and obesity.
Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death in the UK. One in five men and one in six women will die from the disease – more than from all types of cancer.
However, experiencing nature in the outdoors and being active outside can help tackle mental health issues, obesity, diabetes and coronary heart disease.
Key points to summarise:
A number of important medical conditions are increasing in the general population. This is costing the NHS money. All of these conditions can be helped in some way by increasing physical activity.
Reinforce that experiencing nature and being active outside can help tackle mental health issues, obesity, diabetes and coronary heart disease.
This is an Essential slide
Purpose: This is a useful slide to show in order to emphasise that if individuals are inactive, they are unlikely to gain health benefits and may also expose themselves to additional health risks.
Delivery notes: This slide is designed to highlight the size and cost of the problem of inactivity. The information on this slide links to one of the answers in activity number 24, the Big Quiz, in the Activity Resource Pack). The Big Quiz is a good activity to do after lunch to liven the trainees up and to reinforce the main messages. This slide should take only2 minutes to deliver.
Training Manual: pages 6, 7 and 9
What to say:
Physical inactivity is associated with all-cause mortality (that is death from any cause) and many chronic diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, certain cancers and obesity.
In England, physical inactivity was estimated to cost £8.2 billion a year in 2002.
For every 60 men who walk in a group one life is saved compared to 60 men who don’t walk.
DoH estimates that if the trends in weight gain continue, nine out of 10 adults could be overweight or obese by 2050.
This information is from the latest Health Survey for England, 2008, published in December 2009.
Key points to summarise:
Inactivity can be detrimental to health. This can and does cost the NHS money.
This is an Essential slide (if you are using the Big Quiz activity)
Purpose: To highlight the health risks of being inactive and to show that a higher percentage of men and women are putting their health at risk from being inactive than from the more widely known risk factors of high cholesterol, high blood pressure and smoking.
Delivery notes: This slide refers to the answer to question card number 1 in activity number 24, the Big Quiz. This is a factual slide which will take 2 - 3 minutes to deliver.
Training Manual: page 9
Activity: Use activity number 24, the Big Quiz, in the Activity Resource Pack after lunch to reinforce the message.
What to say:
You could say something along the lines of:
This shows the prevalence of physical inactivity compared with the other risk factors. physical inactivity is more prevalent than High Cholesterol or High BP or smoking – i.e. it affects a greater percentage of the population. For this reason, the opportunities to improve cardiovascular health through getting people more active are greater and there is potential for a greater benefit to the population as a whole.
(These statistics are taken from the latest published annual Health Survey England report 2008 published December 2009)
Key points to summarise:
The health risks of physical inactivity may be under-estimated by many and are higher than for some of the better known risk factors.
Many people expect smoking to be a bigger risk factor, possibly due to publicity re smoking cessation and effectiveness of public campaign.
Emphasise the importance of Physical Activity campaigns such as Change4life/Walk4life.
This is an Essential slide (if you are using the Big Quiz activity)
Purpose: To highlight the low levels of activity amongst the adult population.
Delivery notes: This slide relates to Question Card Number 2 in activity number 24, the Big Quiz. This is a factual slide which will take 2 – 3 minutes to deliver.
Training Manual: page 9
Activity: Use activity number 24, the Big Quiz, in the Activity Resource Pack after lunch to reinforce the message.
What to say:
You could say something like:
The graph on this slide shows the self reported levels of activity amongst adult men and women (over 16yrs of age).
In reality, the percentage of adults meeting the minimum requirements as laid down by the Chief Medical Officer are much lower. Most individuals tended to over estimate their activity levels in the survey and when measured using accelerometers (a high tech pedometer) the number meeting the guidelines fell to only 6% of men and 4% of women.
About 70% of us don’t do enough physical activity to benefit our health!!
The proportion of both men and women who met the recommendations generally decreased with age.
For both men and women, participation in walking and sports and exercise generally fell with age.
Data taken from the latest published Health Survey England report 2008 (published Dec 2009).
Key points to summarise:
Increasing physical activity has become a global health priority as not only are about 70% of us not doing enough activity to benefit our health – but the amount of activity we do decreases as we age!
This is an Essential slide There is an activity with this slide
Purpose: This is a light-hearted way to introduce a benefits or barriers task.
Delivery notes: This slide gives an opportunity for an activity task to get the trainees thinking about the benefits of activity and also considering some of the barriers that may exist.
Training manual: pages 5 – 10
Activity: Use activity number 9, Knocking Down Barriers, activity number 10, the ABC of walking or activity number 11, Meet the Neighbours in the Activity Resource Pack. You could also use the Carousel activity number 12 with this slide. Allow 20 minutes for this slide and activity.
What to say:
You can say something like:
It is easy for us to tell people they should be active, and in reality most people know the benefits of doing something. However there are often real or perceived barriers to becoming more active so we need to be able to help people decide to make a change.
We are going to do an activity to help you do this.
Key points to summarise:
The barriers to activity (real and perceived) often prevent or excuse people from being active.
It can be hard to get people to see that activity is good for their long term health so sometimes focusing on the ‚feel good‘ factor may be better.
The next few slides will look at some of the benefits in more detal.
This is an Essential slide
Purpose: To deliver and clarify the main activity message of 5 x 30 minutes per week.
Delivery notes: The title of the slide will appear first and you could ask the question to the whole group to check if anyone has any ideas on how much activity is enough or if anyone actually already knows the guidelines. Once participants have finished sharing ideas, you can show the rest of the slide and discuss what ‘moderate’ means. Allow 8 minutes for this slide.
Training manual : page 8
What to say: You might want to clarify this information by saying something like:
These guidelines come from the Chief Medical Officer and recommend at least 5 x 30mins of moderate activity per week for adults. For some groups (children, obese/overweight people) 60 minutes per day is recommended.
Moderate intensity is equivalent to a ‘brisk’ pace and means you are able to talk but you notice that your breathing is quicker and deeper, your body is warming up, your face may have a healthy glow and your heart is beating slightly quicker than normal but not racing. You still feel comfortable though.
There is growing support for the benefit of accumulating activity in shorter bouts of 10 minutes or more interspersed throughout the day. Shorter bouts have demonstrated positive effects similar to a single long bout of activity.
Walking briskly 5 times a week for 30 minutes burns off the same amount of calories as 6 Mars Bars (2000 calories)
Key points to summarise:
Many of the barriers to physical activity can be minimised or eliminated by using the 5 x 30 minutes message and then breaking down the 30 minutes into 10 or 15 minute slots and finding any enjoyable moderate intensity activity to do.
This is an Essential slide There is an activity with this slide
Purpose: To highlight the specific benefits and accessibility of walking as a ‘moderate intensity’ or ‘brisk’ paced’ activity.
Delivery notes: This slide links with slide 21. The title of the slide will appear first and gives a prompt for a ‘Why walking is so good’ activity. Once you have completed the activity and summarised it, you can show the rest of this slide and slide 21 to ensure all points have been covered.
Training manual: pages 5, 6 and 7
Activity: Use activity number 12 from the Activity Resource Pack and complete the activity before showing the rest of the slide or moving on to slide 21.
What to say:
Once the activity has been completed you can feedback and summarise the ideas about why walking is such a beneficial activity.
Walking is cheap as it requires no special equipment or clothing.
It is low impact and safe and both pace and distance can be progressed gradually depending on fitness and ability.
Walking can bring about many physical and mental health benefits.
Use anecdotes to highlight how walking can change people’s well being, fitness and standard of living. Ask volunteers for their experiences or refer to the website for case studies.
Key points to summarise:
Walking is suitable for everyone – and a great social opportunity!
This is an Essential slide
Purpose: To highlight the specific benefits of walking at different paces.
Delivery notes: Use with slide 20 to complete the summary of the ‘Why is walking so good?’ activity for using this slide. Once you have completed the activity and summarised it and you have shown the rest of slide 20, use this slide to ensure all points have been covered. This slide and slide 20 should take no more than 15 minutes to complete.
Training manual : pages 5, 6 and 7 for the benefits and 12 and 13 for information on the ‘how it feels’ rate of perceived exertion scale and brisk pace.
What to say:
Emphasise that ‘pace’ is important and that the pace must be suitable for the individual.
Also emphasise that talking about brisk too early on for beginners can be very off-putting so you need to say that you can get all those benefits at any pace.
Key points to summarise:
Refer to the previous slide 20 and summarise that walking is the most painless, cost effective and efficient way to get the exercise we need and is suitable for everyone.
Walking is the closest thing to perfect exercise and includes the 4 F’s – Fun, Free, Fitness, Friends
This is an Optional slide
Purpose: This slide underpins the importance of health walks for mental well-being as well as for physical health.
Delivery notes: Although this is an optional slide it is useful to show this if time allows. There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that activity and experiencing the outdoor environment can help to improve mental well-being. This link can be overlooked and it may be worth showing this slide in order to underpin the importance of health walks for mental health and well-being as well as physical health and to remind VWLs of this link and to re-emphasise it. Allow 5 minutes for this slide.
Training manual : page 7
What to say:
You may want to ask a general question along the following lines:
Has anyone here ever gone for a walk to clear their head? Ever said ‘I need to get out and blow the cobwebs away’? Has anyone ever felt better after a walk in the fresh air?
You can then go on to say something like:
The Chief Medical Officer states that 'Physical activity is effective in the treatment of clinical (mild to moderate) depression and can be as successful as psychotherapy or medication'.
Walking is, for most people, an ideal form of such physical activity and has been shown to improve self-esteem, relieve symptoms of depression and anxiety, and improve mood. So, Health walks can make a significant difference.
In addition, the mental health benefits may be more quickly realised than the physical benefits for people taking up activity. This can be useful in helping people maintain regular activity. If they feel better and enjoy the experience they will want to come again.
Key points to summarise:
Health walks can make an important difference to an individuals mental health as well as their physical health
This is an Essential slide
Purpose: This is an introductory section header slide.
Delivery notes: This section is made up of slides 23 – 28 and should require approximately 90 minutes to complete. This slide should take up to 2 minutes.
Training Manual: pages 11 – 13
Activity: there are a number of activities in the Activity Resource Pack that are suitable for this section. Each slide give suggestions for the activity and how long they should take to complete.
What to say:
You may want to start this section by say something like;
In this part of the training we are going to;
Define what a health walk is;
Identify the key components of a health walk;
Talk about moderate intensity walking; and
Participate in a demonstration walk.
Key points to summarise:
You can return to this slide at the end of the section to check learning and make sure you have covered everything.
This is an Essential slide There is an activity with this slide
Purpose: To explain the definition of a Walking for Health walk.
Delivery notes: With this slide you can either a) summarise the definition of a walking for health walk, as shown on the slide and move onto the next slide or b) use this slide as a discussion point and do an activity. If you use this slide as a discussion point then show the title and picture and then show the definition after the discussion. Allow 15 mins for this slide with the activity and 5 minutes without.
Training manual: page 11
Activity: Use activity number 13, What’s it all about? in the Activity Resource Pack with this slide. This activity should take 10 to 15 minutes to complete.
What to say: after/instead of the activity say something like:
Walking for health walks are;
local; free; led by volunteers; sociable as they are done as part of a group; completed on relatively flat terrain; often 30 – 45 minutes; includes a section of the walk where participants walk at a brisk pace and are open to all, particularly those who haven’t recently done any physical activity.
You could also summarise some of the things that a walking for health walk isn’t, by saying something along the lines of;
A walking for health walk is many things, but some of the things it isn’t include; a cross country hike that requires a map & compass; a competitive, timed walk or a fitness training session where you have to pay to participate.
You might want to conclude this slide by giving a short overview as to why group walks are so good by saying something like;
As we touched on earlier, there are a great many benefits to walking.
We know that participating in a group health walk has the added benefit of people continuing to walk in the long term, rather than dropping out after a short time as they might do with the gym.
One study showed that 70% of people who had joined health walks were still actively walking with the group 18 months later, where as more than 50% of gym goers had dropped out in the first 6 months.
I also mentioned earlier that the main purpose of a WfH walk is to encourage people to walk more in their local area to improve their health.
Key points to summarise
The definition of a WfH walk, as shown on the slide.
The benefits of a health walk, as covered in slides 20 and 21.
This is an Essential slide There is an activity with this slide
Purpose: This is a practical session where the CT will be leading a planned outdoor walk. to demonstrate to volunteers best practice in how to lead a Walking for Health walk.
Delivery notes: The preparation, walk and post walk should take no longer than 50 mins.
The demonstration walk is a compulsory part of the training, but doesn’t necessarily need to take place at this exact stage in the day. Weather conditions or walk availability may mean it is done at a different time. However, as slides 26, 27 and 28 are linked to the demonstration walk they are best delivered after having done the walk.
As the trainer for the day you will need, as far as possible, to deliver the ‘perfect’ model of a health walk. You will need to synchronise your actions with the VWL cue card. You may wish to explain to the group that for the walk you will no longer be their trainer but you will be ‘role playing’ a volunteer walk leader.
Before starting the walk it is a good idea to ask someone to be the back marker and to ask participants to complete their name and section B of the outdoor health questionnaire. As you have not walked with this group previously you need to fully check their health status, doing this before the walk will save time.
Once you have the OHQs, complete a Register with the group *ESSENTIAL*
Training manual: pages 15 and 16.
Activity: Activity number 14, Demonstration Walk, in the Activity Resource Pack and the Cue Card in the Resource Pack give more information on what you need to do during the demonstration walk.
What to say: You might want to introduce this slide by saying something like;
So now we are going to get active! I’m going to be a volunteer walk leader and take you through a demonstration walk.
Key points to summarise:
When you have completed the walk move on to slides 26 – 28 to reinforce what makes up a ‘best practice’ health walk.
This is an Essential slide There is an activity with this slide
Purpose: To explain the key components of a WfH walk.
Delivery notes: This slide is best delivered after the demonstration walk has been completed. As this slide appears make sure that only the title is displayed. Complete the activity, then show the slide content. Allow 10 minutes in total for this slide.
Training manual: pages 12, 15 and 16
Activity: The slide will appear without the content. At this point you should do activity number 15, Walk the Walk, from the Activity Pack. This should take no longer than 10 minutes. Once you have completed the task you should then display the content on the slide. Allow 15 minutes for this activity.
What to say
So now we are going to reflect on the walk you have just done.
Then move onto the activity instructions.
Key points to summarise:
You may then want to summarise what has been discussed by saying something like;
A walking for health walk should have a beginning, a middle and an end.
Make sure you meet and greet and train your volunteer lead walkers to;
complete all the paperwork at the beginning.
give your walkers a good walk experience in the middle and allow some time to give encouragement and praise;
and include some socialising at the end.
This is an Essential slide
Purpose: use this slide to illustrate the different levels of intensity that a participant should experience during a short WfH walk.
Delivery notes: Allow 8 minutes for this slide.
You might want to ask the group what kind of analogy they might use to help walkers understand the different intensities that they should experience during the walk. Allow some time for discussion but no longer than 5 minutes. You can prompt the group by saying;
What analogy did I use as the volunteer walk leader?
Then summarise the car analogy by saying;
If the human body was a car with 5 gears, then the warm up should take the car through first and second gears in a controlled way. After this the walkers should try to move up to third and fourth gear. Fifth gear is not used on a health walk as it is too fast. We then ‘cool down’ by gradually ‘taking the car back down through the gears’ for the last phase of the walk.
Training manual: page 12
What to say
You may want to say something like;
From this graph you can see that ;
A Walking for Health Walk should be a 30 – 45 minute walk led walk.
The first and last five minutes should be at a gentle pace. Some individuals new to walking may need a longer warm up and cool down period.
There should be some time in the middle of a walk when participants feel that they are walking at a moderate pace.
Key points to summarise
A walk should include; a warm up, brisk pace and cool down.
Use the car analogy or something similar to explain the concept of the different phases.
This is an Essential slide
Purpose: This slide emphasises what the brisk component of the WfH walk should feel like for walkers.
Delivery notes: As this slide appears make sure that only the title is displayed. Complete the activity, then show the slide content. This slide links to one of the questions in the Big Quiz. Allow 5 minutes for this slide.
Training manual: page 12. Page13 includes information on ‘how it feels’, the Rate of Perceived Exertion which you may want to discuss now.
What to say:
At this point you might want to say something along the lines of;
We’ve identified that we want walkers to build up the pace gradually starting with a gentle pace at the beginning then quickening so that after they’ve warmed up to a brisk pace, but what does this actually mean? (NOTE: this is a rhetorical question)
Carry on to explain that;
Because everyone’s walking pace is different, a brisk pace for one person may be someone else’s leisurely stroll! For example my brisk walking pace could be very different to that of an Olympic athlete.
So, we need to make sure that walkers are aware of when they are walking at a brisk pace and that this will be different for everyone as we all have different abilities.
To do this we need to help walkers think about how they feel when the are walking and you need to be able to spot the signs that tell us that someone is walking at a brisk pace.
So can anyone describe how they might tell if a walker is doing a brisk pace?
Encourage the volunteers to tell you how they might feel and describe visual cues that might suggest that they are walking at a brisk pace. Try to summarise back what the volunteers have told you and click the mouse so that the content of this slide displays. You should make sure you cover the following points;
The way you should feel as a walker or what you will see as a VWL includes;
quicker breathing; feeling warmer; heart beating a bit quicker
having a healthy glow in your face (depending on your skin tone); people still talking
Key points to summarise: Reinforce the main message on the slide which is that the brisk pace (or moderate intensity) is comfortable yet more challenging than a normal pace.
![Volunteer Walk Leader
Training Course
Walking for Health
[insert Cascade Trainer name and
job title]
www.wfh.naturalengland.co.uk](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/vwltrainingslides1-28-101102102904-phpapp02/85/Vwl-training-slides-1-28-1-320.jpg)
