c/o BBC Radio 4 & Facts4Life - Balance Ball

The following is taken from the transcript of the BBC Radio 4 programme "Inside Health" which I heard today and an image from the resources of Facts4Life which featured as an item.

I have always wondered what is the youngest age at which Hodges' model might be taught. I have noted before how the model can be used implicitly - guiding the professional - or explicitly with the patient or group having insight into the model. The approach of Facts4Life is well worth publicising in the ability and intelligence that children can and should be credited with ...

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic --------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group

... We might have somebody else who’s representing emotions, you say oh I’m feeling a bit sad and grumpy, so their hand might come off.  As each hand comes off whilst the body or the ball wobbles it doesn’t actually fall but as more and more compromises are made, there’s more and more problems to encounter, then it could get to the point where they drop the ball altogether.  And that could be oh perhaps we need a bit of help here, what could we do to help get this body back in balance. ... Green

Around year three we’ll say okay homeostasis we can explain it by using a balance ball.  So a balance ball like a yoga ball.  And the ball represents the body and then we talk to the children about how an illness might look. ... Green  Traditionally there’s been a lot of focus around very black and white concepts that you have good drugs and bad drugs.  Adults tend to make things black and white because they think that’s simplifying things and actually children are really good at grappling with big ideas. Green

Facts4Life

Do you think historically that we have been too black and white then, that we’ve sort of had health in one pocket and illness in another and never the twain shall meet? Porter I do, as a profession yes and as a society there is at the moment an easy contract between the population, as it were, and the health professionals and the contract is that whatever’s wrong with people we will deliver a solution. Toft

I also note on Facts4Life's website, the audiences they are appealing to. I see Hodges' model as being applicable to:

Students - Learners (the research community)
Carers - members of the public
Teachers - Lecturers
Policy makers and Managers

So, if you need a conceptual balance ball: here + catch!

@Facts4Life
Inside Health - BBC Radio 4