A free online course, which aims to help healthcare professionals to support older people to have more physically active lives, has been launched by the Institute of Public Health (IPH).

The course, ‘Getting Active for Better Ageing’, is particularly aimed at GPs, nurses, physiotherapists and occupational therapists, but also any other healthcare professionals who interact with older people.

The course was developed after research carried out by the IPH in 2021 identified the need for tailored education, training and resources to support healthcare professionals to promote physical activity in routine practice.

The research was carried out under the Generating Active Lives in Older People (GALOP) project and involved a survey of 350 healthcare professionals and 60+ interviews across the island of Ireland.

The health benefits of physical activity for older adults are well established. International guidelines recommend 150+ minutes of physical activity for those aged 65 and older every week.

“The evidence is clear - physical activity plays an important role in our health at all stages of life, including in older age which is sometimes overlooked. This new free learning resource is available on our Public Health Matters platform and was developed as a practical programme to assist healthcare professionals to support older persons to be more physically active,” explained IPH director of ageing research and development, Prof Roger O’Sullivan.

The course is available on the IPH’s Public Health Matters app and desktop platform. It was developed to appeal to a wide-ranging audience - from public health professionals and policy makers to members of the public interested in population health issues.

The platform and app is regularly updated to include new podcast episodes, blogs, videos, and other content and resources relevant to public health.

The desktop platform can be accessed here or download the Public Health Matters app for free from the Google Play (Android) or iTunes store (Apple).