On Friday 22nd April, the CWAStockton team jumped into the minibus and went on a road trip up to Shotley Bridge’s Derwent Clinic to meet with Claire and Lewis from the Tees, Esk and Wear Valley NHS Foundation Trust’s Care Home Wellbeing Team to talk about how trishaw rides could benefit the health and wellbeing of both residents and staff in care homes.
The meeting started with the very important introductions to Trixie and lengthy conversations about the trishaw and how it works before taking Lewis and Claire for a trishaw ride around the (very much uphill) Shotley Bridge NHS site. We think that Trixie speaks volumes when left to do what she does best and, for us, it is so important for those interested in the project to experience the wind in their hair and the bugs in their teeth (because they cannot stop smiling) first hand because have you ever tried to “sell” something you have no experience of?
After tackling the hills of the site, Lewis and Claire were keen to know more about the trishaw pilot experience because they were also interested in the health benefit to care home staff in actually piloting the trishaw for their residents enjoyment and their own physical wellbeing, so we quickly ran through the basic controls on riding a trishaw, made sure the trishaw was in low gear and low battery setting and gave Lewis and Claire an opportunity to take the trishaw for a quick spin around the car park.
It is a common misconception that the trishaw is easy to ride because of the battery assist, however we stress that the battery is just there to assist and that if you are not pedalling the battery is not assisting! There is also the different feeling to steering the trishaw. With a regular pushbike or e-bike you can lean into corners and take corners at speed but the two front wheels on the trishaw mean that you need to take corners slowly, carefully and steer fully around the corner. It is a great upper body workout!
From our point of view, the meeting was incredibly positive and we really hope that we will be in a position to work with the Care Home Wellbeing Service in the future to bring positive experiences to care home residents across the region.
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