Extending active life for older people with cognitive impairment through innovation in the visitor economy of the natural environment (ENLIVEN)

到大自然中去走走对我们有好处。它帮助我们保持健康和活跃，刺激我们的大脑，使我们与他人保持联系，并给我们的生活带来快乐和快乐。在2019冠状病毒病大流行期间，花时间在花园里或在家门口观看自然有助于人们应对并感受到联系。患有认知障碍的老年人和年轻时患有痴呆症的人说，大自然在很多方面帮助了他们。他们觉得自己更投入、更热情、更有希望、更有弹性，更能应对挑战。他们的家庭成员一致认为，出去走走，接触大自然是有帮助的。这可以像在附近的公园或花园消磨时间一样简单，也可以是参观或组织郊游到一个特殊的地方或景点，重新点燃过去的记忆。他们还说，有些事情会阻碍他们尽可能多地享受大自然。这些问题包括：缺乏可以休息的座位等设施；台阶笨拙，难以四处走动；由于缺乏指示牌而担心迷路；工作人员似乎不乐于助人；或者感觉老年人不受欢迎。我们需要消除这些障碍，改变态度。人们去享受大自然的地方通常由企业、地方议会、社会企业和慈善机构管理。我们称他们为“提供者”。许多医疗服务提供者希望让患有认知障碍的老年人及其家人更容易进入他们管理的地方，但不知道如何进入。由于到目前为止的研究数量很少，因此可供提供者使用的指导很少。供应商需要知道如何应对不断增长的市场。如果人们对他们的访问更满意，他们会告诉别人，更多的人会来。这将产生新的业务。然后供应商可以添加更好的设施。重要的是要做更多的研究来帮助做出这些改变。许多供应商和其他组织都热衷于与我们在这个项目上合作。我们的研究项目将提出这样的问题：怎样才能使患有认知障碍的老年人（包括年轻发病的痴呆症患者）及其所有年龄段的家庭成员更容易前往户外场所？我们将分4个阶段进行。我们将在所有阶段对老年人（就本项目而言，这意味着患有认知障碍的老年人，包括年轻发病的痴呆症患者）及其家人进行研究。我们也会在所有阶段让供应商组织参与进来。第一阶段：我们将邀请广泛的人士、供应商和其他组织向我们发送信息。我们将与老年人谈论他们在大自然中外出的经历，以及如何让这变得更容易。我们将与供应商讨论，找出哪些是有效的，哪些是可以改进的。我们将从已经完成的研究中学习。第二阶段：我们将与老年人和他们的家人，以及服务机构的管理人员和工作人员合作，找到帮助人们更多地享受户外活动和大自然的方法。我们将提出各种各样的想法，以允许不同的偏好和能力。阶段3我们将测试这些想法。我们将与不同地区的不同类型的供应商合作，找到让他们经营的地方更容易接近和欢迎的方法。我们将帮助他们做出改变。我们将通过与来访的老年人、管理人员和员工交谈，了解这些变化的效果。当我们完成后，我们将把我们所学到的一切汇集在一起，并与尽可能多的人分享。我们将与老年人和提供者合作，开发指南和工具包等资源，以及信息共享网络。这将使更多的人使用我们的研究成果。

Getting out and about in nature is good for us. It helps us stay healthy and active, stimulates our brains, keeps us in contact with other people, and brings pleasure and joy to our lives. During the COVID-19 pandemic, spending time in the garden or watching nature from the doorstep has helped people cope and feel connected. Older people living with cognitive impairment, and people with young-onset dementia, say that nature helps them in lots of ways. They feel more engaged, more enthusiastic, more hopeful, more resilient and better able to deal with challenges. Their family members agree that getting out and about in nature is helpful. This could be as simple as spending time in a nearby park or garden, or it could be a visit or organised outing to a special place or beauty spot that rekindles past memories.They also say there are things that get in the way and stop them enjoying nature as much as they would like. These include lack of facilities such as seats where you can have a rest, features like awkward steps that make it hard to get around, fear of getting lost due to lack of signs, staff seeming unhelpful, or a sense that older people are unwelcome. We need to remove these barriers and change attitudes.The places where people go to enjoy nature are usually managed by businesses, local councils, social enterprises and charities. We will call them 'providers'. Many providers want to make it easier for older people living with cognitive impairments and their families to access the places they manage, but do not know how. There is little guidance available for providers, because the amount of research so far has been small. Providers need to know how to respond to a growing market. If people are more satisfied with their visit to a particular place, they will tell others and more people will come. This will generate new business. The provider can then add better facilities. It is important that more research is done to help make these changes. A good number of providers and other organisations are keen to work with us on this project.Our research project will ask: What can be done to make outdoor places easier for older people living with cognitive impairment (including people with young-onset dementia) and their family members of all ages to visit?We will do this in 4 stages.We will involve older people (for the purposes of this project, this means older people living with cognitive impairment, including people with young-onset dementia) and their families in all of the stages. We will involve provider organisations in all of the stages as well.Stage 1We will invite a wide range of people, providers and other organisations to send us information. We will talk to older people about their experiences of getting out and about in nature and what would make this easier. We will talk to providers to find out what works well and what could be improved. We will learn from the research that has already been done.Stage 2We will work with older people and their families, and with managers and staff from provider organisations, to find ways to help people enjoy getting out and about in nature more. We will come up with a variety of ideas, to allow for different preferences and abilities. Stage 3We will test these ideas out. We will work with different kinds of providers in different areas to find ways of making the places they run more accessible and welcoming. We will help them make changes. We will find out how well these changes work by talking with the older people who visit and with managers and staff. Stage 4When we have finished we will pull together everything we have learned and share it with as many people as possible. We will work with older people and providers to develop resources such as guidelines and toolkits, and networks for sharing information. This will allow more people to use the results of our research.