The health and wellbeing of children from schools across North London have been given a boost thanks to the rollout of a behavioural change programme called Gro Health developed by award-winning provider DDM Health.

The face-to-face and digitally delivered programme has been developed by a leading team of behavioural change and clinical experts to provide holistic health support and maintenance of healthy habits across the four therapeutic areas of activity, mental wellbeing, nutrition and sleep.

Children were invited to take part in a range of activities and were supported with the Gro Health multi-platform app at home and in-between physical sessions.

The aim of the initiative is to get children and their families moving more and engage in healthy eating habits.

A Mulberry House School representative said: “The children explored activities with immense enthusiasm, comparing foods and learning how to make healthy choices in their diet as well as learning about the importance of their mental wellbeing through mindfulness and yoga. They absolutely loved it!”

Mulberry House School is one of six schools benefitting program the program in North London funded by NHS North Kilburn Primary Care Network (PCN).

The new platform builds on DDM’s peer-reviewed, multi-award-winning digital health architecture and provides users with multi-platform access to remotely monitored behavioural change support.

While available as an app, the program is also delivered face-to-face and is being used in a ‘blended’ physical and virtual approach in a number of corporate, children’s health and wellbeing and community settings.

Peer-reviewed evidence shows that after 12 weeks of using the Gro Health platform, participants reduce their symptoms of stress by 23 per cent, symptoms of anxiety by 32 per cent, and symptoms of depression by 33 per cent.

Charlotte Summers, Chief Operations Officer at DDM, said: “The launch of Gro Health in schools marks three years of development with pediatric experts, Royal Colleges and children and families across the UK. We’re empowering families to make better decisions.”

Dr Peter Foley, Clinical Safety Officer at DDM, said: “Gro Health offers children and their families a wonderful opportunity to learn and develop lasting healthy lifestyle habits. Parents and teachers can be reassured that Gro Health is safe, effective and built upon the foundations of evidence-based practices. Health starts at home, and by learning as a cohort, the benefits of this roll-out can have lasting personal and collective health improvements, for both children and their families. The opportunity for us to offer Gro Health to these schools allows us to further develop and consolidate our award-winning software while we empower the lives of as many children as possible.