Well, we know that there is strong evidence that shows people's health benefits from spending time in natural places like parks, being active along riverside and beaches, and giving up time to look after habitats, or grow a plant on a windowsill. The NHS want to know what helps people to stay well, manage any health problems and the role people’s neighbourhoods can play in this. Stark inequalities in access to these natural ‘health assets’, exist. Just 35%* of households with annual incomes below £10,000 are within a 10-minute walk of a publicly accessible natural green space.
This is why The Wildlife Trusts are working to bring wildlife to more people, and more people to wildlife.
“This has been a game changer for me and after being diagnosed with endometrial cancer I increased my time outdoors in nature with like-minded people. I absolutely believe this saved my life.” Respondent to Wildlife Trusts’ call for people to have their say on NHS reforms.
Or as another respondent to our NHS survey said: “Helping people access nature and green space is an important factor in preventing ill health but is often overlooked, and there is inequity across communities with those in greatest need often having least access. “
We know it works too. A major evaluation of a green prescribing for mental health pilot programme in England has been published (find the report here: Preventing and Tackling Mental Ill Health through Green Social Prescribing). The seven green prescribing pilots began in 2020 – each with involvement from the local Wildlife Trust. Over 8,000 people took part, with 57% coming from the most economically under-served places. The research showed significant reductions in anxiety and depression symptoms and improvements in mental well-being.
On the pounds and pence, green prescribing compared well with other NHS interventions s. The cost of a green prescription was about £500. Comparatively, cognitive behavioural therapy costs about £1,000 for 10 sessions. This chimes with economic analysis that The Wildlife Trusts published in July 2023: A Natural Health Service: Improving Lives and Saving Money. Health economists reviewed five Wildlife Trust’s programmes and found that they save the NHS money and cut reliance on their resources. Also, that there are much greater cost savings to be had if these programmes were delivered at scale in the UK. For example:
Wild at Heart run by Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust generated cost savings to the NHS of £38,646 based on 82 participants over a year. If this programme were delivered at greater scale – to 1.2 million people, the study found it could result in annual cost savings of £635.6 million, for an investment of £534 million.
As far back as 1948, the World Health Organization defined being healthy as a ‘state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’. Will a conventional medical approach achieve this? No. Should it step in when we are ill and need medicine and expert care? Absolutely.
Shifting the focus from treating to preventing illness, stopping health problems from developing in the first place, makes sense whichever way you look at it. Prevention, whenever possible, is better for people, the economy and the NHS – and nature has a fundamental role to play. The shift towards community-based health and care is an equally important element: a recognition that a social approach to health and well-being is part and parcel of a sustainable NHS and an essential part of making it fit for the future. We know that nature is an essential part of a community-rooted approach to health and social care: a Natural Health Service to run alongside the National Health Service. But we are not maximising that potential. Green prescribing works, and the more we can develop these kinds of programmes, the greater the benefit to society. The impact it has on societal health is enormous and investing in this work is clearly worth every penny.
Your views matter - thank you for ensuring that nature, your community and neighbourhood can be properly included in public healthcare in future!
