“It is more important that a million people can cover four miles in an hour than that one person can cover one mile in four minutes.” Do you agree?
“Tall Poppies are beautiful, but should not crowd out more humble flowers.”
National evaluation: CISHE Healthy Living Centres Project
There are over 300 HLCs in the UK and these are just a few of the more attractive and informative websites. Do you know of any more?
why New Zealand needs them to save lives and money
What are they? You may have heard of Leisure Centres, which offer a range of opportunities for exercise, such as a gymnasium, weight training, swimming pool, aerobic suite and other facilities.
These are good, but have some deficiencies as a way of keeping the whole population fit (and that is most important as surveys show that obesity and type II diabetes are an increasing threat to health). The problems include the cost: all privately owned Leisure Centres and gymnasia need to charge a hefty fee to remain solvent and this prevents many of those most in need from attending. Teenagers without affluent parents are excluded. Centres are situated where there is money!
These Centres also tend to attract those who are already committed to exercise, the younger, fitter, upwardly mobile members of society. This makes the middle aged and less fit feel embarrassed and out of place.
A well-
It also offers an environment to socialise and meet people of one’s own age and sex who share the same problems. Exercise in company
is much more fun! And there will be instructors to ensure that people gain maximum benefit without overdoing things.
In Britain over the last few years over 300 Healthy Living Centres have been built, mostly with money from the Big Lotteries Fund. They are of many types: where there are already good public facilities, such as swimming pools and gymnasia, the HLCs provide the minimum of new
buildings, encouraging everyone to make use of the existing facilities and providing advice and assistance. Where there is a lack of opportunities the HLC will be on a more comprehensive scale with everything for indoor exercise under one roof.
NEW ZEALAND has an enormous problem of obesity and Type II diabetes. There is no doubt that we need to improve our diet and especially ensure that “junk food” is not available to children at school, but in addition we must make it possible for everyone to take regular exercise of a type that they enjoy, in all weathers and seasons. It will cost many millions of dollars to pay for enough Healthy Life Centres throughout the country, but this is much less than the $10 BILLION that our Health Service costs every year. Money will be saved in the long run! Lives too...
Here are some material that we have written for the Health Select Committee’s enquiry into Obesity and Health.
ORIGINAL SUBMISSION (PDF) POWERPOINT PRESENTATION (PPT)
SCRIPT FOR THE PRESENTATION (PDF) “NEW PE” in some US schools (PPT)
If necessary, download a free Powerpoint Viewer
Healthy Life Centres
Some interesting overseas websites: note that not all HLCs are labelled as such!
Also see the New Zealand FOE website for dietary recommendations