I noticed a children's play area mostly designed with bamboo constructions, getting transformed into an Exercise park for families in a hospital campus. It therefore has picnic spots, play areas for children and exercise areas for adults. I found this integrated approach interesting for three reasons.
The hospital is actively prospering the mission of family times of leisure and togetherness. It is a message that there is another world beyond the closed door of a home where leisure times are mostly TV viewing times or indoor play times.
The call to move and exercise across all ages in a family comes at a time when reduced mobility causes the body to suffer from overweight, compromised exercise tolerance and activity deprivation.
Having a space created for an exercise park in a public space, which people pass by while going and returning from work is a statement of purpose, calling for interspersing work with a plan for self care.
The three purposes of family times, call to move and self care are the statements that I picked up while walking around the Exercise park, yesterday morning. I noticed the director of the hospital early in the morning in the park engaging the workers and attending to the creation of the environment.
I remember while engaged with couple of organisations during my mid life, this theme of wellness of the staff came up for dialogue. The staff engaging in health care delivery for people coming to the hospital need attention to live in the wellness plane. At that time overweight, or stress affecting the body with an early onset of fatigue or non communicable diseases was not so pronounced as it is today! The Life Style Medicine Unit at Christian Medical College, Vellore is a trend setter to create this awareness even more. It started a regular weekly conversation with staff of the hospital on an on line mode to create a dialogue forum for wellness as a way of life. The post graduate on line diploma programme the unit offers to health care professionals is another direction to incorporate wellness as the ground from which all health care professional can live and function.
A creche for children, a Gymnasium for adults, courts for games and sports, music room and indoor space for multiple uses are common in a hospital campus.
The Exercise park for families is a step further in bringing the family unit into the centre of attention to promote wellness and upbuilding!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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