Green Health Partnership

Green Health Partnership

Led by Fife Coast & Countryside Trust (FCCT)

From our years of partner engagement with NHS Fife and its associated Health & Social Care Partnership, as well as our involvement with the Improving Levenmouth Together initiative seeking to address the causes of antisocial behaviour, we know that Levenmouth has very strong foundations for social referrals, mental health support and programmes focussed on diverting people from harmful habits into more positive pursuits.

However, a key gap was identified: a lack of coordination around green health activities. While there are groups, organisations and charities that provide outdoor activities for members of the public, they’re barely represented within the existing frameworks of health and social care provision.

This project aims to change that by establishing a joined-up network which will embed green health activities within health & social care provision while carrying out a programme of awareness raising and participation to change people’s perceptions of green health and its benefits.

This will also include a 12-week Branching Out programme where, once a week, people will participate in woodland-based activities such as nature photography, conservation, walks and yoga, environmental art, learning about ecology and more, to improve their mental health. Branching Out will be run 8 times.

The intended impacts of this approach are to:

  • Improve health outcomes for local people.
  • Increase participation in outdoor or nature-based clubs, groups and charities.
  • Encourage more use and appreciation for community-use outdoor spaces, including the River Park.
  • Create an evidence base which can be used to embed this approach across Fife and Scotland, hopefully leading to a healthier society.

It’s worth noting that this isn’t intended to replace traditional healthcare; however, we should make use of all options available to us to become safer through improved health, while tying this human health to a healthy natural environment.

Click here to access the design report, produced by FCCT, which this project was informed by.