Connecting to nature through ‘social prescribing’
Healthcare professionals are increasingly helping to connect people to the benefits of nature in the New Forest through ‘green social prescribing’. Find out about the improvements in physical and mental health they are seeing thanks to this ‘Natural Health Service’.
Being in nature is good for us. This is something we often feel intuitively when we go outside on a sunny day or take a trip to the countryside or coast. It’s also something which research and evidence backs up: time spent in nature benefits our well-being, improves our mood and provides us opportunities to move and get active.
A recent study showed that the value of the New Forest National Park – in terms of avoided healthcare costs – was a massive £27million per year, equivalent to 999 nurses.
However, it can also be hard for people to find time and opportunity to make the most of being outside and to know what might be available or where to go.
That’s where social prescribing comes in. This rapidly developing idea in healthcare provision approaches health and wellbeing in holistic way, considering all the factors in a person’s life and not just trying to address a physical or mental health problem on its own.
Joanna Sheppard is a social prescriber for New Forest Primary Care Network. She said: ‘Social prescribers work with people to look at what’s important to them and what they would like to change to improve their health and wellbeing – both physical and mental. It often involves connecting people to environment and communities.’
The New Forest Primary Care Network Social Prescribing Team works with all ages from 12 upwards in a variety of areas, with Joanna mainly supporting young people aged 16 to 25. ‘We help them into various activities,’ she said. ‘If there was something happening with a local group and we had a young person that wanted to go along, for example, we could go with them to the first one to help them settle in.’
Joanna has seen a marked increase in patients’ mental ill health since Covid-19, particularly in young people, and most of her work is focused around their mental well-being.
She has seen first-hand the difference that nature makes to their confidence and communication and none more so than when she introduced a young person to a well-being session in the New Forest, led by the New Forest National Park Authority’s education and youth staff.
‘The 23-year-old we brought into the Forest had been really, really, struggling with his mental health and not really going out and doing very much.
‘We did a loop through the heathlands and down to a pond, and back up through trees near a deer viewing platform.
‘He’s quite impacted by sensory experiences and didn’t like walking though some areas as he was quite worried about ticks, but once we got into the tall trees, he felt very calm and restful. He loved the feeling of being among the trees. And it was then that something in him just switched and he wandered ahead and was experiencing the forest in his own way.
‘We noticed he became more talkative as well. We sat down at the end to talk through what he’d enjoyed about the walk, and we all talked about our experiences of nature. He very much reflected on his childhood and as well as learning about the Forest and the trees, he seemed to really like having that communication with others and bringing to life memories of his younger days.
‘He really liked the mindfulness and the relaxation we did. We sat and we listened, and we created a sound map of what we heard.
‘Overall it was such a positive experience for him, and part of a bigger journey. He had been in a job that wasn’t challenging him and his goal was to work in IT support. After the forest visit, he did some IT drop-in sessions, and then some volunteering sessions, leading to him eventually getting a job in IT.
‘I think the whole package: getting himself to a place, meeting different people, learning new things and feeling part of something gave him confidence and led him to a really positive point where he is now.’
