Developing a Nature and Health Hub for Cornwall

越来越多的证据表明，经常在自然户外活动对一个人的整体健康和福祉有好处。医生和其他健康专业人员越来越有可能建议那些可能患有抑郁症、焦虑症、孤独症或整体健康状况不佳的患者进行社交、非临床活动，尽管他们可能会开出传统的治疗方法。与此同时，从环境科学的角度，而不是从健康的角度，研究人员越来越有兴趣展示自然环境如何为人们提供各种原本可能被忽视的好处，比如对健康做出贡献。在埃克塞特大学，学者们一直从这两个方向探讨这一主题，并一直在与医生、土地所有者和患者合作，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，得到支持的群体专注于在大自然中散步。有时，它们涉及更多的动手活动。这方面的很多工作都是在康沃尔进行的。在过去的几年里，该县围绕经济、环境、健康和福祉建立了新的合作伙伴关系。康沃尔委员会或多或少地参与了这些伙伴关系中的每一个。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紧密地协调一致，以及它与政府签署的“权力下放协议”的内容。这项提议是为了最大限度地利用这个机会。大学研究人员和委员会同意花六个月的时间详细研究一种新的工作方式。这将把医生可能推荐病人参加的各种户外活动与所有已经进行的公共健康促进工作结合在一起。还可以加入其他东西；例如，在康沃尔的杰出自然美景地区和国家信托基金举行的步行小组。此外，康沃尔体育伙伴关系正在推进减少不活动的倡议。所有这一切都可以集中在一个结构下，一个协调的服务下。因此，建议为研究人员争取六个月的时间来详细研究这一问题。这位研究人员将不得不做一系列事情：看看科学是怎么说的，并总结证据；确保所有潜在合作伙伴都同意并实现他们的目标；与康沃尔6个被确定为最需要帮助的目标区的实地人员交谈；以及撰写一份可交付和可筹集资金的商业计划。这方面的创新之处在于采用了“阶梯式改变”的方法，这样有关如何走出大自然的一般建议和小贴士就会与实际的提供者、散步团体、户外治疗师等捆绑在一起。通过一个单一的“自然和健康中心”进行的协调努力，应该会对康沃尔居民的健康和福祉产生更大的影响，并为科学发现的使用提供一种有效的方法。我们想看看这样的中心如何也能与工作场所的倡议相配合，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伙伴关系聚集在一起是很有可能的--许多组织和伙伴关系原则上已经签署了尝试--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。撰写该计划是这项提案的目的。

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.