Social prescribing: a ‘natural’ community-based solution (original) (raw)
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International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Nature-based solutions (NbS), including green social prescribing (GSP), are sustainable ways to address health and wellbeing, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the strain on healthcare. NbS require national and local cross-sector coordination across complex, interrelated systems, but little is known about the specific challenges this poses for community-led NbS. We carried out a traditional literature review to establish the context and knowledge base for this study and interviewed 26 stakeholders. These came from environment, health and social care sectors at national and local levels, with local-level stakeholders from Bradford and Walsall: English cities significantly affected by the pandemic, with high levels of deprivation and health inequality. The interviews explored experiences of implementing NbS, both pre- and post-pandemic and the resulting renewed interest in the salutogenic effects of engaging with natural environments. We coded the interview transcript...
Green Social Prescribing in Practice: A Case Study of Walsall, UK
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
This paper presents a case study of Green Social Prescribing (GSP) in Walsall, a medium-sized urban area located in the West Midlands, UK. GSP is a means of enabling health professionals to refer people to a range of local non-clinical nature-based activities, e.g., community gardening and conservation volunteering. As a new practice to address multiple challenges in health and sustainability, GSP has been promoted by the UK government and the NHS in the past few years. There is as yet limited evidence and knowledge about how this approach is implemented at a local level. This paper addresses this gap of knowledge, by exploring how GSP is implemented in Walsall as a case study. Based on extensive engagement and research activities with the local partners to collect data, this paper reveals the local contexts of GSP, the referral pathways, and people’s lived experience, discussing the challenges, barriers, and opportunities in delivering GSP at the local level. This study suggests th...
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
The UK government has invested £5.77 million in green social prescribing to prevent and tackle mental ill-health. Therapeutic community gardening, one type of green social prescription, provides a range of health outcomes. However, for increased accessibility, a greater understanding of how it impacts mental health and the facilitators and barriers to referral, uptake, and attendance by individuals with mental health problems is required. We conducted and thematically analysed interviews with thirteen stakeholders including social prescribing link workers and garden staff; and focus groups with twenty garden members. The mechanisms by which therapeutic community gardening were suggested to impact mental health were by engaging members with nature and the outdoors, providing hope for the future and facilitating social support and relationships. Factors facilitating referral, uptake, and attendance included a holistic and person-centred approach, which is flexible around health needs....
The cultivated ‘healing garden’: Respite and support or lifestyle change?
Cultivated Therapeutic Landscapes Gardening for Prevention, Restoration, and Equity, 2023
A growing literature on therapeutic horticulture across several disciplines shows the potential of the communal garden as a therapeutic landscape that can facilitate respite, mindful engagement with nature, and social support, while also providing a site for more structured interventions for particular at-risk groups. Such interventions may target physical, mental or social aspects of wellbeing and quality of life. In this chapter we consider the experiences of a guided gardening practice by cancer survivors, as part of a broader examination of communal gardens as cultivated therapeutic landscapes that provide spaces for preventative health interventions. The experiences shared were gathered as part of a pilot project carried out in the Netherlands in 2017, which explored the use of therapeutic horticulture to support physical activity and healthy eating during and after cancer treatment. The pilot was set up to examine communal gardening as an activity that can help cancer patients adhere to lifestyle guidelines regarding physical activity and healthy eating, as well as offer a supportive group environment. While the project did not manage to ‘failed’ (according to its own criteria) regarding helping people adhere to lifestyle guidelinesthe first aim, it succeeded in creating a supportive environmenton the second. We use this finding to engage in a broader discussion about the role and function of the communal garden within a broader landscape of (neoliberal) public health that focuses largely on individual behaviour-change as a route to better health. Our findings show that even square meter gardening containers can be experienced as valuable, comforting spaces, and that projects that frame gardens as lifestyle interventions overlook the value of the garden as a supportive setting with the potential to promote better health in a holistic sense. We situate this discussion in the context of a growing recognition of the value of green restorative environments for health and wellbeing. more broadly, especially as a way to improve equity in health.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Community engagement, such as participating in arts, nature or leisurely activities, is positively associated with psychological and physiological wellbeing. Community-based engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic facilitated informal and local mutual aid between individuals. This rapid evidence review assesses the emergence of community-based arts, nature, music, theatre and other types of cultural engagement amongst UK communities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we focus on all community engagement with a sub-focus on provisions accessed by and targeted towards vulnerable groups. Two hundred and fifty-six resources were included that had been created between February 2020 and January 2021. Resources were identified through Google Scholar, PubMed, Web of Science, MedRXic, PsycharXiv and searches for grey literature and items in the public domain. The majority reported services that had been adapted to become online, telephone-based or delivered at a distance from doorst...
The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2018
Social prescribing is a collaborative approach to improve inter-sectoral working between primary health care and community organisations. The Links Worker Programme (LWP) is a social prescribing initiative in areas of high deprivation in Glasgow, Scotland, that is designed to mitigate the negative impacts of the social determinants of health. To investigate issues relevant to implementing a social prescribing programme to improve inter-sectoral working to achieve public health goals. Qualitative interview study with community organisation representatives and community links practitioners (CLPs) in LWP areas. Audiorecordings of semi-structured interviews with 30 community organisation representatives and six CLPs were transcribed verbatim and analysed thematically. Participants identified some benefits of collaborative working, particularly the CLPs' ability to act as a case manager for patients, and their position in GP practices, which operated as a bridge between organisations...
International Journal of Integrated Care, 2023
Social Prescribing is a mechanism by which primary care team members can refer patients to community groups to improve their health and well-being. It integrates health, social care, and community, allowing patients to actively improve their health and well-being by participating in community initiatives and activities. These activities have traditionally been part of community life in European countries, and the benefits need to be consistently recognized.