This Healthy Heart Grant project has now finished, read on for the project highlights.

The Problem:

Vulnerable people, such as people in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction, including people with mental health problems, living in deprived areas face multiple disadvantages and are often in a routine of negative and unhealthy patterns of behaviour. These people often make poor food choices primarily due to their lack of knowledge about the importance of nutrition.

People with high levels of trauma, often from childhood experiences, have high stress levels and use illicit drugs to cope, which can increase their risk of developing heart diseases. Recovery from drugs and alcohol misuse also brings dangers to the heart, often from stress too. Stress produces adrenaline, a hormone which overwhelms the heart and puts it under additional strain. The 180 programme had seen an increased number of cocaine addicts using their services. These are the people at the highest risk of a serious cardiac event if they relapse. However, no other addiction or rehabilitation services provide sufficient support and advice when it comes to heart health.

The Project:

The 180 project ran preventative activities to educate, inform and enable a vulnerable community to take interest and ownership of their own heart health.

Beneficiaries attended for 3 hours per week and participated in group exercise (CrossFit), received support with mental health and stress management techniques, attended educational workshops and used a new heart-focused health and wellness app. The app empowered participants to take control of their own health. They recorded their heart rate daily and received individualised feedback to help them take actionable steps to improve their readings. Participants were encouraged to move daily, were educated on what to eat and drink for optimal heart health, worked on sleep improvements and stress management, as well as participated in self-care and social connection activities to help sustain their new healthy lifestyle.

This project not only improved the health and well-being of the participants but also brought together vulnerable members of the community and produced lasting friendships.

Project Highlights:

The 180 project supported 85 participants with 66 people consistently participating within the programme. These beneficiaries have sustained a new healthy lifestyle, taken up a new hobby and successfully used a new health and wellbeing app. The programme saw a 95% increase in sustained physical activity and an 85% decrease in substance misuse. Heart health benefits of this project that were also measured through the app include: 59% of people saw improvements in their resting heart rate with an average reduction of 10 beats per minute, and 68% of people had improvements in their stress management score. Overall, the project has had a positive impact on the large majority of the participants with only 9% of beneficiaries having no improvements in any sector of the project. The programme also helped to build a community and lasting relationships.