Innovative health and wellbeing model pioneered at Plymouth Marjon University

Released: 20.07.21

Marjon Health and Wellbeing welcomed health and wellbeing professionals from across the South West to the ‘Working together to deliver healthcare excellence’ event. It also featured our ‘Student-led Knowledge Exchange’ team, who explore the impact of student involvement in health and wellbeing clinics and share the findings with other organisations.

The event showcased the person-centred health and wellbeing model developed at Marjon. Delivered in a social non-medical environment, it takes a holistic and multidisciplinary approach. It empowers people to live healthy lifestyles by learning more about physical activity, healthy eating, relaxation strategies and sleep.

The innovative model, developed and researched over 12 years, enables students to work closely with people to focus on lifestyle, rehabilitation and behavioural changes. Over 1000 students have now qualified as health care professionals while working in the clinics.

Marjon, in collaboration with its partners, now offers services such as back care, leg ulcer rehab, fibromyalgia, speech and language therapy, sports therapy and rehabilitation, osteopathy, cancer care and general wellbeing advice and health checks. All focus on the whole person and what they can do, not simply on their condition, recognising the multitude of factors which can influence health and wellbeing.

Marjon staff and students were joined at the event by service users and guests from partner organisations, which include Livewell South West, Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust, Sentinel Health & Wellbeing, Ernesettle Health Centre, The Environment Agency, Devon and Cornwall Police and The Mustard Tree Macmillan Cancer Centre. The 44 guests had the option to attend either in person or virtually, making the event accessible to health care professionals from across the South West.

Event participants learnt about Marjon’s existing services and ongoing research through the Lifelong Health and Wellbeing Group and the Student-led Knowledge Exchange project partnership. They took a real or virtual tour and contributed to discussions about how we can work in partnership to fill gaps in the healthcare workforce, and how Marjon’s expertise and facilities can best be used to support the local community.

Professor Saul Bloxham, Dean of the School of Sport, Health and Wellbeing, said: “Marjon wants to further our conversation with our friends and colleagues in the health sector to work in partnership. We want to help educate and train the healthcare professionals that our NHS needs now.

“Together with our partners, we have developed our student-led clinics founded in the belief that education, self-reflection and social support can improve quality of life. We work with people to promote a positive and friendly approach to health which encourages lifelong health and wellbeing through strengthened human connections and a focus on the people, rather than on a disease or condition.

“We research and evidence the impact our approach has on individual lives, on student learning, and on local healthcare services. We listen to the people and organisations we work with to find out what works, establishing new healthcare education where it is most needed.”

Jamie McClaughlin from the Environment Agency said: “I had the pleasure of attending the innovative health and well-being event at Plymouth Marjon University. Networking with affiliated partners, sharing experiences with staff and being able to contribute to the ongoing strive for excellence within all the programmes was fantastic.

"Having realised the tangible differences a well thought through tailored health improvement programme can make to our organisation, I’m delighted to be able to explore the possibilities of scalability in order to realise our aspirations. Thank you Marjon for facilitating the day and we look forward to working with you further in the future.”

For further information please see the Marjon Health and Wellbeing website or watch as staff, students and patients outline how we do things in this video about our clinics: