Installation of Exercise Equipment in Acute Mental Ward

Running Head: EXERCISING GEAR INSTALLATION IN ACUTE MENTAL WARD
PROPOSAL:
Installation of Exercising Equipment in Acute Mental Ward of The Hospital
Author Name
Author Note

EXERCISING GEAR INSTALLATION IN ACUTE MENTAL WARD1
Introduction
The proposed plan is to build exercise equipment in the hospital’s acute mental wards
to promote the physical as well as mental wellbeing of the patients and to help manage the
occurrence of obesity and fatal chronic diseases. The target population of this plan is adults
belonging to the age range of 18 and above, with acute or severe mental illness. Mental
health patients require inpatient care in hospitals, due to their mental states and require to
never be subjected to social exclusion. Thus, the introduction of different exercise equipment
can also be used as group recreational activities for the patients, as well as promote physical
health improvement (Daniel, Bornstein & Kane, 2018). These exercising equipment might be
used to remove the mental duress, anxiety issues and help promote positive emotional health
in mental patients.
Problem:
The issue addressed in this proposal highlights the lack of physical exercise in mental
health patients making them vulnerable to chronic conditions like cardiovascular diseases,
metabolic syndromes, obesity, type 2 diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease,
hypertension, stroke, haemostasis, depression and anxiety, osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis,
polycystic ovary syndrome, erectile dysfunction, constipation, gallbladder diseases and even
different cancers like - colon cancer, endometrial cancer, and breast cancer (González,
Fuentes & Márquez, 2017).
Situation: The proposed plan suggests that exercise equipment be used to help in
implementing the improvement of physical and mental well-being of the mental patients
(Firth, Cotter, Elliott, French & Yung, 2015). Several studies have showed that the
introduction of physical training programmes and exercising equipments like physiotherapy
equipments, musculoskeletal and neurological stimulating gear and risk free weight reducing

EXERCISING GEAR INSTALLATION IN ACUTE MENTAL WARD2
machineries can be used to prevent the mental patients from contracting physical health
complications and chronic diseases (Edmunds, Biggs & Goldie, 2019). This can also help in
improving the emotional health and cognitive functioning of the patients preventing them
from contracting associative mental illnesses.
Target Population: The mental patients of the hospital, admitted in the acute mental ward,
belonging to the age range of 18 and above, and suffering from mental health issues like
depression, anxiety, and other severe and acute illnesses.
Stakeholders: Stakeholders should be involved to help implement this patient-centred
intervention in the hospital, keeping the well-being of the patients in mind while making sure
the intervention does not pose any risk to the patients (Geerligs, Rankin, Shepherd & Butow,
2018).
Services impacted: After implementing this change, the hospital staff especially the staff
from the acute mental ward would be responsible for the maintenance and effective use of the
facility. The nurses should make sure that no misuse of the equipments occurs and no patient
is harmed in any way.
Desired outcome: The exercising facilities and physical training programmes can help in
improve patient health-
 Promote healthy lifestyle among mental patients so that they do not suffer from
chronic conditions.
 Promote emotional stability and positive emotional health to help them overcome
their mental duress and anxiety and also give them hope for a better and normal
life.
 Prevent the mental patients from feeling socially excluded.
Rationale for the proposal:

EXERCISING GEAR INSTALLATION IN ACUTE MENTAL WARD3
The installation of exercising facilities and physical training programmes can be
considered an effective non-medicinal mental health recovery approach, as studies have
highlighted that effective physical exercising has increased the emotional stability of the
mental patients and have been successful in helping them cope with anxiety and depression
(Hearing et al., 2016). Another main aim of the proposal is to help the mental patients
prevent chronic diseases like cardiovascular diseases, different types of cancers and more, in
order to help them lead a normal life.
Discussion
Selection of change theory
The selection of the change theory was done keeping in mind the welfare of the
mental patients in the acute mental ward of the hospital. The mental patients usually suffer
from great deal of anxiety and stress and are often victims of social exclusion, which
deteriorate their health further. Thus, to help facilitate their treatment process, physical
exercise can be used to help the brain release ‘feel good’ enzymes like dopamine, serotonin,
and endorphins in their bodies and help biochemically generate positive emotions (Robinson,
Segal & Smith, 2019). The introduction of training programs and gym facilities can be used
as assistive treatment procedures, which along with their prescribed medications can
significantly help better the mental state of the patients. This can also help decrease the
mortality rate of the mental health patients, by helping them prevent the incidence of chronic
conditions like heart diseases, obesity, weight related issues, cancers and more (Pearsall,
Smith, Pelosi & Geddes, 2014). The proposal was conveyed to the Nurse Consultant, Clinical
Nursing Consultant and other Clinical Nurses. The change proposal has been seen to follow
the objective of the organisation- ‘Supporting a healthy community’.