Connecting with nature and being active outdoors improves people's health and wellbeing.
The benefits and positive outcomes include weight management, preventing chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension, and improving mental health by reducing stress and anxiety. Communal activities can also promote and create social connections with others which again supports and enhances our wellbeing.
The COVID pandemic showed how people valued and used their outdoor spaces for exercise and relaxation. It also highlighted the importance of being outdoors to people’s mental and physical health, as well as the inequality of access to green space.
All of these benefits can be enjoyed simply by people becoming more active outdoors. Sometimes, we realise that people need to be sufficiently interested and motivated to get out there, but also to be informed about the activities and places they can go and get involved in. This website seeks to provide that information.
Nature or Green Prescribing
Promoting and signposting people to these places for activities, such as mindfulness in nature, gardening groups and allotments, habitat restoration, bird watching, or simply walking is sometimes called 'green prescribing'.
This provides opportunities for GPs, primary care professionals and others where appropriate to directly refer people to these, working with providers of activities to support patients' health and wellbeing.
