A Natural Health Service: Developing partnerships
The West of England Nature Partnership were delighted to deliver such a successful event for the second year running. We welcomed over 75 attendees to the Healthy City Hub to discuss, debate and deliberate the important relationship between nature and health.
The evening was opened by Dr Michael Dixon (College of Medicine, Social Prescribing Network), who gave an overview of what was happening nationally in health policy and practice, Michael focused on the opportunities for social / green prescribing, and some of the benefits of this approach. Dr Alan Kellas (Nature-Based Health Care rep, Royal College of Psychiatrists) then explained the local landscape and some of the projects through a hand drawn map. A case study of how nature and health partners are working together were demonstrated using the relationship that has been developed between FeedBristol community growing project and Burley Inclusive who support people with learning disabilities.
Dr Trevor Thompson introduced a knowledgeable panel made up of Becky Pollard (Bristol City Council), Geoff Keogh (parkrun), Rowena Kenny (Wild4Life) and Michael Connors (Human Nature) who provided their perspectives and expertise on “How can we optimise the link between nature and health?” The audience were then given the opportunity to ask questions and a lively, two-way discussion was had on topics such as strategic leadership and policy; race, equality and nature; NICE guidelines; care farming; and green infrastructure.
This event was developed by our Nature, Health & Wellbeing working group. Find out about the event we ran in 2015.
