Partnering with British Cycling and Sport England
With the support from British Cycling and Sport England, funded by DCMS, more care facilities across the UK are able to access Motitech’s technology and take part in the annual global championship Road Worlds for Seniors – designed to motivate older people and people with dementia to get more active through cycling.
Stronger together
Motitech has entered into a five year partnership with British Cycling and Sport England – beginning in 2019, to further strengthen the benefits of the initiative around physical activity and the Road World for Seniors in the UK. The partnership will support Motitech in delivering opportunities that will enable the care facilities to engage in delivering physical activity opportunities for their residents, and thus for older people to remain active and healthy.
The Road Worlds for Seniors is one of the initiatives that helps building the Motiview community globally.
Lack of opportunities leads to health challenges
Unfortunately, seniors – especially living in long term care – are left out of many opportunities for activities, and even more so; Competitions. Motitech remedies some of that through the annual cycling championship, the Road Worlds for Seniors. This is a championship where all seniors using indoor exercise bikes cycling to Motiview videos can be a part of one of the largest sporting events in the world.
When providing motivation to exercise with the help of cycling videos; Physical activity, reminiscence and social connectedness increase. For people living with dementia these aspects are especially important and fruitful and significantly enhance the quality of life. More and more research suggests that physical activity may slow down the progress of dementia symptoms, and the general benefits from being active is quite well-known across the board. And in addition to the direct physical and mental benefits from this, sparking memories from familiar places triggers conversations that build new connections and strengthen existing social bonds. People become friends over Motiview.
Enabling more seniors to become active through cycling
“They’ve had it two weeks now and you can really see an improvement in how far they go on it. Some of them are disappointed at only getting to use it for 15 minutes. Peter was saying how he is looking forward to going to Jerusalem and Greece.” These words come from Felicia Imafidon, manager at Norton House, a care home in in the hearth of London. Norton House are on of many care facilities that have been given the opportunity through the support from British Cycling and Sport England to get active and increase the health of their residents using the Motiview concept.
Norton House are also for the first time participating in the Road Worlds for Seniors, the annual global championship for older people and people with dementia. The Championship aims to motivate seniors around the world get active and have fun at the same time using the Motiview vides to virtually travel while clocking their kilometers. The residents at Norton are competing against thousands of residents in care homes across the world.
A lot of people met up to support the local residents at their kick off event – participating for the first time in the annual Road Worlds for Seniors event.
The initiative, supported by Sport England and British Cycling, gives more seniors the ability to get healthier through cycling. And the local council are proud to see such initiatives being offered to their seniors: “So it is a great honour that Norton House has been chosen to participate in this race – and we hope that the residents enjoy the experience as well as trying to win.” Says Councillor Heather Acton, the council’s cabinet member for public health. “As a local authority we have pledged to do our best for people living with dementia and are working on a strategy for the City.
Ferd’s first cycle trip went to Israel, here showing the busy streets of Jerusalem. Through the global video library users can choose to cycle to videos of local places as well as famous places around the world.
Getting healthier with Motiview
Peter Lazarus (79) and Debbie Cordingley (65) are both living at Norton House. They have in the past few weeks been experiencing the benefits of using Motiview and participating in the annual event. And both of them are clear on their experience: “I read about these bikes in the British Medical Journal and how it helps the flow of circulation for people who don’t have much activity and who have dementia.”, Fred says. And Debbie agrees: “I’ve got a few friends who take me out sometimes, otherwise I only go as far as the courtyard. So I enjoyed getting the exercise.”
In addition, they both experience the additional benefits that the videos bring: “I really enjoyed it. It was very relaxing and I hadn’t been on anything like it,” Debbie says. And Fred, being a former French infantryman, enjoys cycling to videos from around the world: “This was my seventh time. Mostly I’ve been doing routes along the North African coast but the first one I did was in Israel.”
Supported through the Places to Ride programme
The five-year partnership support the initiative through their Places to Ride capital grants programme. Places to Ride has been made possible through a new £15m commitment from the UK Government, and will be delivered over the next three years through a unique partnership between British Cycling, Sport England and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS).
Sports Minister Mims Davies, highlighting the relevance of such funding to enable all people to become more active, states: “Sport has an incredible power to boost people’s mental well-being, as well as their physical health. I am delighted that our investment in this innovative project will help older people, and those with dementia, to get and enjoy being active.”
