Motivating health professionals to promote 'Green Exercise' - lessons learned from Natural England's Health Campaign - Martin Shaw Senior ...
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Motivating health professionals to promote ‘Green Exercise’ – lessons learned from Natural England’s Health Campaign Martin Shaw Senior Specialist – Health & Environment martin.shaw@naturalengland.org.uk
More people enjoying, understanding
and acting to improve, the natural
environment, more often.
Role of Natural England
• Health Research
– Bring together solid evidence platform to create informed
decisions.
• Health & Environment Campaign
– To realise the full health potential of the natural environment.
• Health Policy Development
– To link all those using the natural environment to promote
health.
– To provide accessible green space within 300 metres of every
home in England for exercise, relaxation and wellbeing.
• Project Delivery with partners.
– Green Exercise, Health walks, Green Gym etc
• Communication
– Events, conferences and networks
Natural England’s
Health Campaign
• Aim to to help more people access the natural environment more
often, close to where they live.
• Focussed on ‘Health Professionals’ – GPs;Nurses;Plus links to
Public Health professionals (Health Trainers;Pharmacists)
• Partnerships with Voluntary Health Groups & Dept Health
• First Stage Market Research completed
• Studies into ‘hard to reach’ groups – Gateshead
• 2nd stage research & demonstrations in development
• National Conference – June 2007Market Research into ‘target
groups’
• Overall objective was to explore the attitudes of health
professionals to Natural England’s forthcoming campaign
• Main issues covered:
– Current attitudes to recommending greenspace use
– Types of illnesses / patients for which greenspace use is
considered likely to be beneficial
– Interest in finding out more about the campaign
– Preferred channels for contact by Natural EnglandMethod and Sample
• Combined quantitative / qualitative research study
• Small scale to provide insights into attitudes of health
professionals and inform future work
• Quantitative
• 70 x 15 min telephone interviews (30 GPs, 40
Practice Nurses)
• Qualitative
• 8 x 30-45 min in-depth telephone interviews (4 GPs,
4 Practice Nurses)
• Equal representation of urban, urban fringe and rural
areas.Current Practice of Recommending
‘Greenspace’ use
Walking in park;
countryside; fresh air
67%
Joining a ‘Ramblers’ group But only
12%
61% 23% were
Recommend aware of
Greenspace
Fitness scheme /
specific
use exercise on prescription locally
7%
organised
activities.
Cycling
9%
Take dog / children for
walk (companionship /
focus)
7%Illnesses / Conditions / Age Groups for
which Greenspace Use is Recommended
%
Coronary heart disease (CHD) 100
Cerebro-vascular disease (CVD) 93
Diabetes (Type 2) 98
Overweight / Obesity 98
Mild / moderate depression / anxiety /
93
stress
Recommend greenspace use for all age
91
groups
Mainly recommend for middle-aged /
9
elderly people
Majority listed all the above conditions spontaneously without any need for promptingAttitudes of Health Professionals and
Patients to Recommendations for
Greenspace Use
Issue explored in more depth in qualitative research and main points to emerge were:
1. Currently very few specific greenspace activities available (as far as health
professionals are aware) and therefore only general recommendations are made:
• “Do more walking”
• “Get out more”
• “Take more exercise”
2. GPs / Nurses are aware that many patients are unlikely to take up this
recommendation because they need more guidance about:
• Where to go
• What to do when they get there
• What benefits they should notice
• How frequently to do this
• How to vary their activities
3. Health professionals and patients would benefit from clearer guidance about
greenspace useWhat they wanted to know? The majority of respondents expressed an interest in receiving information from Natural England relating to its Health campaign. • Most prefer to receive this by post • But expectation that both patients and professionals would be able to download information from Natural England website
What they wanted to know? Roughly half the sample would be interested in attending a seminar or conference • Ideally within a ten-mile radius of their practice • Increase interest by making provision for families – a social occasion at a weekend • If only aimed at professionals, go for mid-week
What they wanted to know? Health professionals would feel more confident about recommending greenspace use if they had up-to-date and detailed information about: • what is on offer locally • who is organising it • what benefits each activity brings (and what the evidence base is for this) • what frequency of use should be recommended. There is a widespread feeling that many patients are now living their lives indoors and that they will need a strong motivation to change their habitats and adopt greenspace use as a regular habit.
What Next? Early days – we continue to test and learn •Physical Activity Care Pathway set up in London – partnership between Natural England, Department of Health and Sport England •Embed the Gateshead Green Exercise Pilot and seek to roll out the lessons learned to other parts of the Region •Commencing a partnership with the NHS alliance to develop new ideas for Green Exercise referral
“Walking is man’s best medicine”
Hippocrates
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