NATUREMIND 2024 REPORT ACCELERATING GREEN SOCIAL PRESCRIBING

Abstract

On 7th June 2024, the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) Social Prescribing Unit and the mental health charity Mind Over Mountains co-hosted the third ‘NatureMind’ conference on green social prescribing. The event brought together leading practitioners, academics, commissioners and policy makers from across the voluntary, private and public sectors, all with an interest in the effects of the outdoors and nature on physical and mental well-being.

The conference set out to celebrate successful green social prescribing initiatives and to help identify and overcome the barriers preventing more widespread uptake across the UK. This report’s understanding of social prescribing is based on the National Academy for Social Prescribing (NASP) definition:

“a means for trusted individuals in clinical and community settings to identify that a person has non-medical, health-related social needs and to subsequently connect them to non-clinical supports and services within the community by co-producing a social prescription – a non-medical prescription, to improve health and wellbeing and to strengthen community connections” [1].

Furthermore, NASP describes green social prescribing as “the practice of supporting people to engage in nature-based interventions and activities to improve their mental and physical health” [2].

This report is a summary of the content of the conference presentations and rich panel discussions, with a particular focus on the emerging themes, current challenges and policy recommendations emerging from the day. Acknowledgements of our speakers and panellists are included at the end of this report and we are grateful to all our contributors, workshop leaders and participants for an engaging and lively conference.