A career in the NHS and a love of the outdoors led to a determination to connect more people with nature. As RSPB Nature Prescriptions launch in England for the first time this week, Sarah Walker, nature and wellbeing project manager, talks about the importance of nature for our health, and how this new project could provide a way for more health professionals to improve our health and wellbeing.
Birdsong and cherry tree blossom. Those are my two strongest memories from 2020 and the first covid-19 lockdown. In amongst the feelings of fear and sadness, I remember how clearly I could, for the first time, hear birdsong from within my house and notice how long the blossom clung to the cherry trees in the village. No longer drowned out by traffic noise, birdsong brought so much joy to my daily walk.
Access to nature
I have lived my life spending time outdoors, but never have I been more grateful to nature than I was during the pandemic. I worked in the NHS at the time, not on the front line, but in a team trying our best to keep people safely out of hospital. It was during that time I became ever more aware of health inequalities, of the enormous difference that where you live can have on the quality of your life. Of how some people could access vast countryside from home and others had no means of accessing green space.
In 2021 I had the absolute joy of starting work for the RSPB to do a job that connects people to nature to improve their wellbeing. I’ve always encouraged people to spend time in nature to help with wellbeing, including my own family and friends, so this really is my dream job. But my determination to address inequalities within my work remains as strong as ever. I want to do what I can to help more people to improve their wellbeing through accessing nature wherever you live.
And this is one of the many reasons why I love RSPB Nature Prescriptions.
RSPB Nature Prescriptions
So, what are RSPB Nature Prescriptions? Well… this week we’ve launched a new project in the High Peak, Derbyshire that involves people having a conversation with a healthcare professional about why nature is important for us. It also uses a calendar of self-led ideas to connect with nature. Most important of all it's a free to use, accessible and flexible way to improve health and wellbeing.
It’s the first time this has been done in England but builds on some brilliant pilot projects ran by colleagues in Scotland. When I first read about their work introducing nature prescriptions in Shetland and then Edinburgh, I loved the simplicity and accessibility of the calendar. The results from the pilot in Edinburgh were fantastic too, both the impact it had on the patients involved but also on those people who were doing the prescribing, the GPs and practice nurses. 74% of patients felt they benefitted from a nature prescription, 87% of patients and 91% of prescribers said they would continue with nature prescriptions beyond the pilot (read more about it here). I was so excited at the thought of bringing RSPB Nature Prescriptions to England. And now they are here in the beautiful High Peak area of Derbyshire.
An example of the ideas included in the calendar (Credit: RSPB)
Why is nature so important for our health?
I know personally that I have always benefitted from being in nature, but there is also a huge amount of research that has been done in this area along with the evidence from people taking part in the RSPB Scotland Nature Prescription pilots. One person described their experience:
“[a nature prescription] has been a saviour. It has allowed me to listen to my feelings, a greater awareness of how things affect me, and just how much beauty is around us. I have slowed down, and I am so much calmer thanks to this initiative.”
There is a wide range of research supporting how connecting to nature reduces anxiety and depression, increases our feelings of joy and happiness, improves our ability to cope with stress and helps us to feel more satisfied with life. There is also growing evidence showing how nature is both beneficial on our mental health and is an important protective factor.
The first time in England
One of the key things about a Nature Prescription is that it’s offered by a healthcare professional; trusted members of our communities and cheerleaders for our health and wellbeing. Through discussion with Tom, a local GP in the High Peak and with Jo, learning and discovery ranger for the Peak District National Park Authority, we thought social prescribing services would be a great place to start offering Nature Prescriptions in the area. Thankfully, the two local social prescribing services were incredibly enthusiastic and supportive.
Social prescribing link workers assist people to explore ‘what matters to them’ and take a holistic approach to people’s health and wellbeing. Link workers give people time and help to research solutions to problems that they identify. They connect people to local partners, self-help and community groups for practical, social, physical and emotional support. Nature Prescriptions sit so well with this way of working.
Our approach was to form a small project team of the various partners, pooling our resources, skills and knowledge to develop RSPB Nature Prescriptions for the people living in High Peak. This includes a prescription leaflet that explains why Nature Prescriptions are being offered and the benefits, a calendar of suggested ways to connect to nature which is evidence based and tailored to the local area, and a training session for prescribers.
We wanted to ensure that the calendar is accessible to as many people as possible so many of the suggested ways to connect to nature in the calendar can be done from home or close by. For example, it could be to look for the first star in the night sky or to open your window and listen for the sounds of nature.
You don’t have to travel far you could simply try standing outside and feeling the wind in your face or you could watch the different types of clouds moving across the sky.
There are suggestions for going further afield such as following one of the Miles without Stiles routes through the Peak District National Park. But you can choose to try the suggested nature connection at a time to suit you and do them as often and for as long as you like. You don’t have to join a group, you can do them on your own or with others, and they mostly don’t cost anything to do. The calendar makes suggestions of ways to connect to nature in a personal and meaningful way. They are not simply about going outside, but about really noticing and engaging with nature.
I can’t wait to hear from people in the High Peak about their experience of RSPB Nature Prescriptions. And I hope that this is just the start, and that we can spread the use of RSPB Nature Prescriptions throughout England. Being able to connect to nature is so important for our wellbeing and I am sure that RSPB Nature Prescriptions, in a small and simple way, can help more people to experience how nature nurtures us and encourages more people to care for nature.
Five things you could do this week to connect with nature…
I’ve loved doing the suggested ways to connect to nature in the calendar, here’s some of my favourites.
And of course, later in January I will be taking part in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch!
To find out more about nature prescriptions visit the RSPB website here: https://www.rspb.org.uk/natureprescriptions.
What a lovely job you have . I love to see spider’s webs covered in frost , they are beautiful .
I really do, and I honestly feel grateful every day for the opportunity to be involved in this. And as for spider's webs covered in frost? Well I'm with you there, they really are so incredibly beautiful