“It's worth it's weight in Gold!”

Seen now in over 1,500 different locations, The Happiness Programme is well known throughout the care sector, including in residential homes, supported living services, hospitals, day services, schools and libraries.

With funding from the Gwent Regional Partnership Board, Practice Manager Geraint was able to introduce the Happiness Programme when he started at Ringland Medical Practice in Newport, and says it’s great for patients and “worth it’s weight in gold!”.

“We have the Happiness Programme set-up in the reception area for patients and family members to use while waiting for their appointments. We leave it on for everyone with the remote control available and they can use it as they see fit, it’s been going down really well with lots of people taking to social media to say how good it is”

The practice caters to a wide patient cohort, with visitors of all ages enjoying the technology:

“We’ve seen all types of people interacting with it, and it’s allowed people who wouldn’t normally interact to get together. I’ve seen young children playing games against older disabled visitors and once we came out to see 2 patients in wheelchairs laughing who decided they wanted to go along with one of the chair exercise videos that is on there while waiting”

Aside from the distraction of having something fun to play with while waiting, I asked Geraint if they had observed any other benefits:

“Having people of all different ages and backgrounds interacting when they wouldn’t normally is going to provide a wellbeing benefit, and of course the increased physical activity from some of the games is always beneficial from a health perspective.”

Part of the success of the Happiness Programme in general is how it evolves over time, with new content and activities tailored towards the people we support. We asked Geraint if there’s anything in particular they would like to see added to the system:

“There’s nothing that I can immediately think of. We like the patients to have the freedom to use it however they want and choose whatever activity they want to participate in. Sometimes people are unsure what it is, so they ask staff about it, but other than that we let them decide how to use it”