Weight, diet and exercise
Staff interviewed on four out of every five rehabilitation and continuing care wards told us that dietary advice, or access to a dietician, is available for individuals. Records were kept of individual weights in nearly all wards, but regular monitoring of weight only occurred in three-quarters of those.
Because of the correlation between weight gain and certain medications, we believe that monitoring should be in place for all those with severe and enduring mental illness. Almost a third of the individuals we interviewed expressed concerns about their weight. However, only just over half said they had been offered dietary advice. This is potentially concerning. We would urge services to reflect on this locally.
We asked those we interviewed whether there was an exercise programme available. Less than half answered positively. Staff on nearly a quarter of wards said there was no exercise programme available. Health promotion should include availability of an exercise programme for all in-patients and encouragement to engage with this.
Visit and monitoring reports
- Mental health of prisoners
- Left Behind
- Lives less restricted
- Focussed visit report 2010/11
- Not properly authorised
- Decisions for Dignity
- A Home of My Own
- A Question of Balance
- Half year statistics
- Care and treatment in adult acute wards
- Learning Disability Census 2010
- Where do I go from here?
- Greater expectations revisited report
- About this report
- What people told us and what we found
- Conclusions and recommendations
- Young people in mental health services
- Rights, recovery and restriction report
- Supervision and support of private guardians
- Young people and welfare guardianship
- Care and treatment for people on short term detention
- Remember I'm Still Me
- Learning Disability Census 2008
- A Hospital or a Home
- Older and wiser
- Respect for diversity
- Missed opportunities
- Unnanounced visit report 2005
- Greater Expectations