Following a successful presentation at the British Association of Sport and Exercise Medicine student conference (April 2019) one of our BDRN PhD research students, Gemma McCullough, was invited to deliver a workshop at the annual South Yorkshire Physical Activity Symposium for the Sheffield Society of Sport and Exercise Medicine in May 2019. Gemma was thrilled to accept the invitation, and travelled to Sheffield Medical School to deliver a workshop to two groups across the day, entitled ‘physical activity and mental health: exploring bipolar disorder.’ This was a multidisciplinary event in which GPs, physiotherapists, trainee doctors and students undertaking courses relating to sport and exercise or medicine attended.
Gemma said: ‘I was delighted to hear afterwards that this workshop was one of the most popular and well attended at the event, showing that there was a real interest in physical activity for mental health, and attendees were very keen to learn more about bipolar disorder and the real life experiences of physical activity in relation to mood. Attendees asked questions in the workshops which generated interesting discussions about how practitioners can help people overcome the barriers that may prevent people living with bipolar disorder from engaging in a form of physical activity that works well for them.’