Dr. Valerie Scott, a physician at Mt. Pleasant Family Practice, and Mr. Tom O’Rourke, Executive Director of Charleston County Parks & Recreation (CCPRC), recently presented the Move IT! program to the Medical Society.
Move IT! Charleston County is a community health and wellness program using both physician-referred and self-referred approaches that leverages the medical expertise of physicians and organizations like the American College of Sports Medicine, the American Medical Association, park and recreation resources, and the Department of Health and Human Services for the good of the greater community’s health.
How Move IT! Works
Move IT! participants can be referred by a Roper St. Francis physician, or they can self-refer.
Physician-referrals
Physician-referred participants engage in classes taught by fitness professionals and designed specifically for patients managing chronic conditions. Each program blends structured physical activity with targeted health education and healthy lifestyle strategies to promote health and well-being. Participants can join in at various locations, including select Charleston County Parks, and their activities are tracked and measured. Charleston County health and wellness professionals will conduct periodic, functional assessments throughout the program.
The hopeful results? A healthier community, which has lasting, positive impacts on the medical and business communities, too. The hope is that when perfected, the Move IT! model can be a health model for communities across the state – and country.
Self-referrals
The self-referred Move IT! programs are open to the public and help individuals gradually and safely progress from low to high levels of activity. Self-referred programs include: the Walk and Restore program, which combines walking on the trails of James Island County Park or Caw Caw Interpretive Center with stretching and restorative yoga; yoSUP, which combines yoga with Stand Up Paddleboarding; iSUP, which combines intervals of yoga, Barre and pilates with Stand Up Paddleboarding on the lake at James Island County Park; the calorie-burning Short Circuit class at James Island and Palmetto Islands County Parks; and CCPRC’s race-training programs like Run your Way to a 10K or the Sprint Triathlon 101 Clinic. For more information and to register, call 843-795-4386 or visit the Charleston County Parks & Recreation website.
If your patients could benefit from any of the Move IT! programs, simply give them a referral. It may just give them a new lease on life!