Tag Archives: Mental health
How can care home staff support people with dementia to be meaningfully occupied?
How somebody spends their time has a huge impact on how they feel. This includes how they see themselves and how satisfied they feel that they are living life in the way they want to. Feeling happy with life may not mean feeling occupied every moment, but that the things that people do have a […]
Green Social Prescribing Test and Learn Pilots National Evaluation Final Report Published
The final outputs of the Green Social Prescribing Test and Learn Pilot National Evaluation have been published. Working with researchers at The University of Sheffield, Sheffield Hallam University, and the University of Plymouth we at ECEHH have undertaken an evaluation of the Preventing and Tackling Mental Ill Health through Green Social Prescribing Project (GSP Project), […]
New job: Green social prescribing RCT research fellow
Are you an enthusiastic researcher with experience of mixed methods, stakeholder and public/patient engagement, and an interest in social prescribing, nature-based interventions, complex interventions, and trials? We are looking for a Research Fellow to support our pilot randomised control trial and process evaluation of a nature-based intervention for people with mental ill health. The overall […]
The contribution of blue space to well-being in the lives of people with severe mental illness
Sarah and Lewis have collaborated on new research which explored the ways in which people with mental illnesses such as schizophrenia or bipolar use bluespaces including coastals and inland waters, and how it affects their mental health. The paper was published in the journal People and Nature. Semi-structured online and telephone interviews were carried out […]
New paper: Using systems thinking when evaluating nature-based solutions
The major challenges that society faces, such as noncommunicable diseases and climate change, require large-scale interventions that work in complex systems. These interventions are often at regional or national level scales and can rarely be evaluated using experimental methods as researchers typically can’t control who receives the intervention. Nevertheless, evaluation of these types of interventions […]
Healing Power of Nature: Podcast from Alex Smalley
Alex has worked with BBC Studios Natural History Unit and Audible to create a new podcast focusing on the healing power of nature. You can read more about Alex’s work on his Virtual Nature project site. In today’s fast-paced world, most people are familiar with feeling stressed, anxious, and overwhelmed. But a remarkable resource exists […]
ReBLS: A new longitudinal survey of people’s attitudes towards nature
As part of our work for theme one of the RENEW project, the Renewing Biodiversity Longitudinal Survey, or ReBLS for short, has been launched. The aim of the longitudinal panel survey is to understand how biodiversity renewal impacts people’s attitudes towards nature and renewal efforts, nature-related behaviours, health, and well-being, and how this may change […]
New paper: Greenspace and mental health – a longitudinal dynamic panel study in Wales
There is growing evidence that living near or spending time in green and natural spaces is asociated with better health and well-being. However, most of this evidence is cross sectional, which represents a snapshot of people’s lives and cannot account for within person variation. This leaves open the possibility of reverse causality, where individuals with […]
Preventing and Tackling Mental Ill Health through Green Social Prescribing Project Evaluation. Interim report published
In Spring 2021 we began work on the evaluation of the Government’s flagship Green Social Prescribing test and learn pilots programme. The interim report, submitted to Defra in January 2023, has been published. The final report will be published later in 2023. We produced: Background to the evaluation of the Preventing and Tackling Mental Ill […]
Developing an intervention and acceptability/feasibility study of a greenspace programme for mental health and problem substance use
Becca has joined a new project, led by Dr Wendy Masterton at the Unversity of Stirling, which aims to develop, and then begin the processes of testing, a nature based programme designed for people with lived experience of poor mental health and problem substance use. With rising levels of poor mental health and substance-related harm, […]
Beyond Greenspace 