Developing a Nature and Health Hub for Cornwall

越来越多的证据表明，经常在自然的户外空间活动对一个人的整体健康和福祉有好处。医生和其他保健专业人员越来越有可能建议那些可能患有抑郁症、焦虑症、孤独感或整体健康状况不佳的患者进行社交、非临床活动，就像他们可能开出传统治疗处方一样。与此同时，从环境科学的角度，而不是从健康的角度来看，研究人员越来越有兴趣证明自然环境如何为人们提供各种各样的好处，比如对健康的贡献，否则这些好处可能会被忽视。在埃克塞特大学（University of Exeter），学者们一直在从这两个方向探讨这个问题，并与医生、土地所有者和病人合作，建立项目，鼓励人们更多地走进大自然。“大自然的剂量”项目已经运行了几年。有时，得到支持的团体专注于在大自然中散步。有时他们需要更多的动手活动。这方面的很多工作都是在康沃尔进行的。在过去几年中，我们在经济、环境、健康和福利方面建立了新的伙伴关系。康沃尔议会或多或少地参与了这些合作关系。理事会还面临着新的挑战和机遇，例如，需要制定一项计划，使保健和社会保健预算和工作量更加协调一致，以及理事会与政府签署的“权力下放协议”的内容。这个提议就是要充分利用这个机会。这所大学的研究人员和委员会已经同意花六个月的时间详细研究一种新的工作方式。这将把各种各样的户外活动结合在一起，医生可能会把病人介绍给这些活动，以及所有已经在进行的公共健康促进工作。其他东西也可以加入其中；例如，在康沃尔的杰出自然美地区和国家信托基金的徒步团体。此外，康沃尔体育伙伴关系正在推进减少不运动的举措。所有这些都可以整合到一个结构下，一个协调的服务。因此，该建议是为研究人员购买六个月的时间来详细研究这一问题。研究人员必须做很多事情：看看科学是怎么说的，总结证据；确保所有潜在的合作伙伴都参与进来，并实现他们的目标；与康沃尔郡六个被确定为最需要帮助的目标地区的人们交谈；撰写一份可交付且可融资的商业计划。这种方法的新颖之处在于，它采用了一种“阶梯式改变”的方法，因此，关于如何走出户外进入大自然的一般建议和提示，与实际的提供者、步行团体、户外治疗师等联系在一起。通过单一的“自然与健康中心”进行的协调努力应该对康沃尔居民的健康和福祉产生更大的影响，并为利用科学发现提供有效途径。我们想看看这样一个中心如何与工作场所的倡议联系起来，因为就业和就业能力是幸福的关键因素。将所有这些不同的组织和合作伙伴聚集在一起是很有可能的——许多组织已经原则上同意尝试——但这是一项需要详细计划的任务。该计划需要详细考虑做什么，在哪里，有多少人，以及如何应用科学和监测进展。写那个计划是这个提议的目的。

There is increasing evidence that regularly being active in natural outdoor spaces is good for one's general health and wellbeing. Doctors and other health professionals are increasingly likely to suggest a social, non-clinical activity for those patients who may be suffering from depression, anxiety, isolation or general poor health, as much as they might prescribe a traditional treatment. At the same time, from the environmental science side of things rather than the health side, researchers are increasingly interested in demonstrating how natural places provide all sorts of benefits to people that can otherwise be missed, such as making a contribution to health.At the University of Exeter, academics have been approaching the topic from both of these directions, and have been working with doctors, land owners and patients to set up projects that encourage people to get out into nature more. The 'Dose of Nature' programme has been running for a few years. Sometimes the groups that have been supported concentrate on walking in nature. Sometimes they involve more hands on activities. A lot of this work has been based in Cornwall. In the last few years new partnerships have been created in the county around the economy, the environment, and health and wellbeing. To a greater or lesser degree, Cornwall Council is involved in each of these partnerships. The Council is also faced with new challenges and opportunities, for example with the need to produce a plan for the closer alignment of health and social care budgets and workloads, and the contents of the 'Devolution Deal' that it has signed with the Government. This proposal is about making the most of that opportunity. The university researchers and the Council have agreed to spend six months looking in detail at a new way of working. This would bring together the sorts of activities, based outdoors, to which a doctor might refer a patient, alongside all the public health promotion work that already goes on. Other things can be added into that mix; the walking groups that happen in Cornwall's Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and with the National Trust, for example. Also the initiatives to reduce inactivity that the Cornwall Sports Partnership are taking forwards. All of this could be brought together under one structure, one coordinated service.The proposal is therefore to buy six months of a researcher's time to look at this in detail. That researcher would have to do a number of things: look at what the science says and summarise the evidence; ensure that all the potential partners get on board and have their objectives met; talk to people on the ground in the six target zones in Cornwall that have been identified as the most in need; and write a business plan that is deliverable and fundable. What's new about this is the idea of applying a 'stepped change' approach, so that general advice and tips on how to get out into nature are tied to actual providers, walking groups, outdoor therapists and the like. A coordinated effort, made through a single 'Nature and Health Hub', should have a greater impact on the health and wellbeing of Cornish residents, as well as provide an effective way for scientific findings to be used. We want to see how such a Hub can tie in with initiatives in the workplace too, because employment and employability are key factors in wellbeing.Bringing together all these different organisations and partnerships is quite possible - many have already signed up in principle to trying - but it is a task that requires a detailed plan. That plan needs to consider in detail what to do, where, with how many people, as well as how to apply the science and monitor progress. Writing that plan is the aim of this proposal.