Mind, body and blood: investigating the changes to health and wellbeing when outdoors?

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Target audience

Organizations involved in nature-based solutions or Green Care activities, health promotion professionals, and communities.

The problem

There has been an increased desire to use nature to tackle health inequalities, especially due to the recent covid-19 pandemic but also through prescribing access and activities outdoors. In particular this has been growing in the United Kingdom in the form of community gardens and care farms, but we need to increase our understanding of the impacts on health to further advocate for the expansion.

What we did and why

We raise awareness of the value of interventions such as community gardens and care farms, while advocating for radical methods to be embedded in research and present their use in a case study based around these sites.

Our study’s contribution

We add:
• Awareness of interventions and research in the use of nature for health and wellbeing
• An outline of pilot radical methods employed for use in research projects.
• A discussion of the limitations of interdisciplinary methods within the world of health geography

Impacts for city policy and practice

We suggest an increased awareness of the value of outdoor spaces across all populations, but research into the field being done so in a careful and crafted way to ensure protection of participants when investigating the impacts of health and wellbeing.

Further information

Full research article:

Mind, body and blood: advancing green care through innovative methodologies within the field of health geography by Louise M. Mitchell, Michael Hardman, Michelle L. Howarth & Penny A. Cook

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