Cockburn ARC delivers $30 million in community health savings

A study of members and patrons of the Cockburn ARC aquatic and recreation centre in Perth’s southern metropolitan region has revealed that it saved its community almost $30 million in health costs across the 2021/22 and 2022/23 financial years.

The study into the benefits that the centres provides found how it delivered improved mental and physical health outcomes for communities along with financial benefits for the City of Cockburn through reducing the risk of 10 major acute and chronic health conditions and diseases including mental health conditions, cardiovascular disease, type-2 diabetes, breast and bowel cancer and dementia in the community.

The mental health benefits of regular physical activity were the standout data indicator from Cockburn ARC’s active membership, accounting for nearly 32% of social value in 2022/23.

City of Cockburn Head of Recreation Andrew Tomlinson said while people still questioned the value of exercise, especially if it involved a financial investment, science showed regular physical activity had the ability to change and save lives.

In October 2023, Australian Bureau of Statistics Head of Health Statistics Linda Fardell said more than two in five Australians (42.9%) aged 16-85 years had experienced a mental health disorder in their lifetime, with one in five Australians (21.5%) experiencing a mental health disorder in the previous 12 months.

The study gave insights into how people managed their mental health, with nearly a quarter of all Australians aged 16-34 years (22.9%) having at least one consultation with a health professional for their mental health in the last 12 months.

As reported by Council Magazine, Sanford Gadomski, who became an ARC member in 2018 while recovering from a serious car accident credits the facility with changing his life, enabling him to improve his physical and mental health with a gym circuit five days a week.

Gadomski advised “if I didn’t get to the ARC my health would plummet within a week, I’d go backwards very quickly.”

The father of two young children, who had to rebuild his life from scratch after his car rolled several times before hitting a tree in 2017, spending months in hospital, including stints in a coma, noted “some mornings I feel really down, but I know I’ll feel better after I finish at the gym. Once I get on the road heading towards ARC, I know everything will be okay.

“Yes, regular exercise is really important for my body, but it’s the mental health benefits that really make a difference to me every day.”

Noting how the Cockburn ARC was designed on a commercial scale as part of a partnership between local, state and federal government, the Fremantle Dockers AFL/AFLW club and Curtin University, Tomlinson stated “adhering to a business model designed to achieve financial stability enables the City to consistently provide cutting edge facilities and services at ARC.

“This includes equipment and facility upgrades and expansions that attract and sustain regularly active members, and provides an attractive alternative to privately operated gyms.

“It was a conscious departure from a common scenario for local governments, which are expected to provide essential community services like recreation centres in the knowledge they would often run at a loss for some time or in perpetuity, with the aim of eventually breaking even.”

The facility, including its spin studio, gym, group fitness areas, will undergo a major revamp in 2024/25.

For the past two years, Cockburn ARC has partnered with ActiveXchange to provides data intelligence on its activities and outcomes.

Aligned with Federal Government and Australian Institute of Health and Welfare guidelines and in collaboration with KPMG, ActiveXchange’s social value model captures data that shows a predicted dollar value saving of members’ activity levels and how it reduces the risk of acute and chronic health indicators on a community-scale.

In 2021/2022, ARC had 1.17 million visits, and 1.27 million in 2022/23.

With thanks to Michele Nugent​​​​, Media & Communications Officer, City of Cockburn.

Images: Fitness facilities at Cockburn ARC. Credit: Cockburn ARC.