WHAT WE LEARNED | 4 MINUTE READ
Using Parks To Improve Health In Islington & Camden
Events of the last few years have underlined how crucial parks and green spaces are for people’s health and wellbeing. But parks have a long history of playing a crucial role in public health. The Camden and Islington team took inspiration from the Victorian parks movement in their project, which put health back at the heart of parks.
Cerdic Hall
Recovery Lead for the Camden and Islington Foundation Trust. He works as a nurse consultant in primary care.
Ollie Jones
Head of Green Spaces at Camden Council and a co-lead for the Parks for Health project.
Barry Emerson
Head of Parks at Islington Council.
Parks For Health
The idea of parks being crucial for human health might have become somewhat lost over the years, but it stems back over a century.
“We’ve known for years the benefits that parks bring us – that’s why the Victorians built them in London all those years ago, because they wanted to improve the health of local people. I think we’ve lost sight of the value of green spaces over the decades, but this project allowed us to bring that message to the fore.”
Barry
Ollie
“Parks were actually one of the first interventions for the public health crisis back in the 19th century, so we came up with this project to respond to our current health crisis - and this was before the pandemic! So, of course it’s become even more important as the project has gone on.”
Widening The Reach Of Green Spaces For Health Benefits
One of the project’s aims was to make sure that the wider community were aware of how they could benefit from their local green spaces.
Barry
“We’ve often held events and activities in our parks, but they’ve always been promoted through the normal channels. This has been great, but it means we’re constantly reaching the same people. With this project, what we’ve done is go specifically to different charities or local community groups and work with them to put on specific activities that benefit them or their service users.”
Barry
“The pandemic really highlighted health inequalities and we all noted the disproportionate impact on Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups. For example, we reached out to a group that wasn’t historically using the park a lot. We spoke with a community group of Muslim women who told us they tend not to use parks because they don’t like dogs. We were then able to explain that we have a number of dog-free parks in the borough, and we’re also in the process of setting up specific activities for that group so they can feel more comfortable and engaged in their local green spaces.”
Ollie
“It’s about how we stop people falling into ill health so they don’t need to go to the doctor or the hospital, and parks offer the infrastructure to help with that. They’re close to where people live, they’re - generally - accessible and there’s lots of evidence out there about the benefit of being outdoors and in nature to people’s wellbeing.”
In this deep dive session senior officers share how they repositioned green spaces, in both boroughs, as health infrastructure. (38 mins)
Overcoming Improvement Means More Than Physical Infrastructure
Health isn’t just physical, and parks need to provide spaces, activities and facilities that support mental and emotional wellbeing as well.
Barry
“When you’re thinking about centering health in parks, there’s the obvious stuff: outdoor gyms, sports facilities, play areas. But there are other, smaller considerations, too. For example, improving spaces for wildlife and nature or providing space for quiet reflection. Then you want to think about having seating areas for social interactions, toilets and park kiosks or cafes. Say you want to establish a gardening group and allow them to thrive, one of the basic, key things you can do is put in a water source and storage. You've really got to look specifically at the space and the needs of specific users or potential users.”
Cerdic
“We can use parks for places where we deliver health interventions like physio or talking therapy – being in a green space adds to overall wellbeing. We can also think about the incidental stuff, like passing through parks on the way to somewhere else – “green routes” – and how that can benefit us.”
Preventative Measures And Green Social Prescribing
Social prescribing enables GPs, other health and care practitioners and local agencies to refer people to a link worker. This link worker supports individuals to focus on what matters to them to help improve their health. In green social prescribing, activities take place in green spaces to help prevent and alleviate mental and physical health issues.
Barry
“The cost savings compared with other health services can’t be ignored here. What's becoming increasingly apparent is that there's a realisation in the health sector that preventing people from coming to their services in the first place is valuable. Frankly, it is a great way of taking the pressure off the NHS.”
Ollie
“We are currently working with colleagues at University College London on a Healthy Parks framework which will unpick the attributes that make a “healthy” park and create a measurement model around it. That will really help us with building the business model, along with the work we’re doing with Vivid Economics to help us value our space financially. According to this work, a visit to a park is worth £7 for your physical health benefit, and £13 for your mental health benefit.”
Cerdic
“It’s been great to see GPs really getting on board with green social prescribing. Generally, we trust our doctors so their getting behind it as a beneficial service really validates it. And my team of mental health workers is amazing. They’re called link workers and they tend to have their own experiences of mental and/or physical health issues. They provide practical and emotional support to people who are really struggling with their health by, for example, meeting somebody in a green space just to have a chat, or accompanying them to an activity. This helps not only the person who was referred, but it also supports the link worker in developing new skills.”
Capacity Building In The Voluntary And Charity Sector (VCS)
Partnerships with local groups, charities and organisations are key to creating the greatest benefit to those who look to green spaces for their health.
Barry
“These organisations get pulled from pillar to post, so you've got to be clear about what the benefit is that they are getting out of it, and make sure that’s front and centre. They've worked hard to get the funding to deliver what they're doing in the first place – you want to make sure that your work is going to help them meet their aims. Thinking in this way also opened us up to joint funding bids which created a really powerful opportunity to deliver benefits to the wider community.
For example, The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities offered grants for local authorities and community partners to run events and activities celebrating the contribution of the Windrush Generation to our society. Islington Council, in partnership with Age UK Islington, Prospex and People’s Company placed a bid for funds to run a joint community project. We received almost £15,000 to carry out this project.”
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