Cork county council to open office dedicated to physical activity to improve wellbeing

Council workers could soon be taking classes in yoga, pilates and mindfulness before work as part of a new initiative to improve wellbeing and promote positive mental health.

Cork County Council has become the first local authority in the country to open a dedicated physical activity and wellbeing office.

And it has adapted a room in County Hall to help deliver a range of initiatives, from classes in yoga and pilates to classes in mindfulness and nutrition, to its staff as part of the initial roll-out of the project.

Headed up by the council’s former communications coordinator and former Cork City FC footballer, Anthony Buckley, who helped the team win the league in 1993, the office has set out to target four key areas, including:

• Promoting physical activity and wellbeing amongst the council’s own staff.
• Promoting physical literacy — learning the basic motor skills such as running, jumping, kicking, throwing and catching — in primary schools.
• Promoting physical activity and its connection to positive mental health amongst secondary school students who are at an age when anxiety orders can manifest themselves.
• And the promotion of the positive impact of physical activity on the wellbeing of the general public.

Mr Buckley said people often feel that the health service is responsible for the well-being and quality of life of the general public.

But he said the primary role of the health service is to treat illness, and that local authorities have a responsibility to create the environment or conditions for wellbeing.

“The evidence base is there to prove that physical therapy is as effective, or even more effective, than cognitive behavioural therapy or some medications,” he said.

The new initiative will target the council’s own staff first who will be asked through surveys to identify the kinds of initiatives they would like to see introduced. It is then hoped to roll out in time various other initiatives to the primary and secondary schools.

Mayor of Cork County, Cllr Seamus McGrath, described it as a “valuable and important initiative”.

“Any increase in our daily physical activity has a positive impact on wellbeing and quality of life at all ages,” he said.

Mr Buckley praised the support of council chief executive, Tim Lucey, in establishing the new office.

Mr Lucey described the initiative as a milestone, and pointed to the fact that physical activity reduces mortality from non-communicable diseases such as heart disease and cancer.

He said the council looks forward to promoting physical activity and its benefits to health and wellbeing for people of all ages across Cork county: “This council acknowledges the central role that local government in collaboration with key stakeholders must take if our citizens are to flourish and enduring change is to occur,” he said.