Society Member Matt Williams and his colleagues at Training Shed have not let their innovative talents rest during the pandemic, accelerating the development of a project called the Wellbeing Score; an easy to follow, free 20 point questionnaire, designed to assess an individual’s fundamental health & wellbeing ability.
Matt is Lead Therapist at Training Shed; a fully integrated training facility that incorporates Strength & Conditioning Coaches, Nutritionists and Sports Therapists. Like many businesses Training Shed has not escaped the effects of the pandemic, scaling down from four clinics to two, but it has allowed the team to look at ways of developing the company and their innovative Wellbeing Score.
Matt, a Masters by Research Graduate from Coventry University, explains:
‘We started looking at the corporate market and initial ways of assessing the health and wellbeing of employees. The Wellbeing Score questionnaire is split into three sections; Health, Nutrition & Movement. Our Health section is based on NHS guidelines and well known “doctors’ advice”. The Nutrition section looks at the basics of nutrition i.e. how many meals do you eat, how much caffeine/alcohol do you consume etc. Finally the Movement section asks for execution of simple movement patterns such as being able to stand up out of a chair unaided.’
Anyone completing the Wellbeing Score receives a free 50 page document detailing the importance of each of the 20 questions with tips & advice on how to make a positive change.
While the team was initially going into companies and working face to face, they are now working online. The scores are entirely subjective, but a key goal is to start a conversation about a person’s health and wellbeing and look at ways they can lead a healthier lifestyle.
The project has also developed in a fascinating direction. Matt said:
‘One of our aims is to collect data from our Wellbeing Score to publish in a National Survey. Currently less than 3% of people are passing the Wellbeing Score i.e. 20/20, & average score is 15/20 to the poorest – 2/20.
The team has received a lot of interest from an array of different areas including a leading hospital looking at how the Wellbeing Score could be introduced for liver transplant and liver cancer patients and another looking at using it in pre-op and post-op care for hip replacement patients. A further study is looking at how the Wellbeing Score can improve overall wellbeing and a potential cost saving to the hospital that could run into millions, as a result of very simple interventions. At a time when the Covid-19 pandemic is emphasising the need to look after one’s own health and wellbeing, this is a great first step.
What’s Next?
While the team has had considerable interest shown in the project and is currently talking to a number of organisations and the Government, it is now looking for over 2000+ people to complete the questionnaire in order to be able to publish as a valid online survey and also share the relevant anonymised data.
Can You Help?
Members of the Society can help by completing the questionnaire. You will find the Wellbeing Score questionnaire at https://www.trainingshed.com/wellbeing-score/ Take the test and see how you do.
If you run a clinic you may want to introduce it to your staff and your patients or if you run a community team you might run it with players and staff. If you would like to set up a dashboard for your organisation for looking at group anonymised data – email Matt@trainingshed.com.
This is a great chance to support a fellow Member in what has the potential to raise the health and wellbeing status of many individuals across the UK at a time when it has never been so important.