1. Barriers and Bridges
to Community Engagement in Nature-Based Programmes
Caitriona Carlin, Gesche Kindermann, Easkey Britton
@NEARhealth_NUIG
May 24th 2018

2. Overview
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Context
Stakeholders
Values, Barriers, Bridges
Co-creating Toolkit
Healthy Places
Co-creating futures
Nature benefits health
and wellbeing
Nature Based Programmes:
Co-designed assessments

3. How are Environment and Health linked?
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4. Complete
state of
physical, mental
& social
wellbeing
DEFINED BY:
WORLD HEALTH
ORGANISATION
What is Health?

5. NATURE: ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
cultural
regulating
provisioning
supporting
What does Nature do for us?
Convention
for
Biological
Diversity

6. @NEARhealth_NUIG
What are Health Enabling (Green) Places?

7. @NEARhealth_NUIG
What are Health Enabling (Blue) Places?

8. Experimental studies demonstrate benefits of nature for physical health
Lower blood pressure
Improved immune system (Japan)
Less type2 diabetes (UK, Australia)
Reduced levels of obesity in
Spanish children
Influential factors: duration and frequency of visits to natural spaces
Healthier heart rates in
Scotland, EU, US, Canada,
Australia
How do we know nature benefits physical health?

9. How do we know nature benefits mental health?
Experimental studies demonstrate benefits of natural over more developed spaces for mental health
Lower rates of depression,
better psychosocial
wellbeing (Austria)
Gardening buffered people
from impacts of stress
Lower risk of poor mental health.
People feel better.
Improved stress management.

10. Irish pressures?
oLiving longer but not always healthier lives
oSedentary lifestyles
oIncreased risks of physical and mental
health problems
o 60% population live within 10km of coast
o 13% Healthy Ireland survey respondents
highlighted lack of open public space
o Increasing urbanisation
o Increasing rural and urban social isolation?
Contains
Ordnance Survey
data © Crown
copyright and
database right, CC
BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.
wikimedia.org/w/i
ndex.php?curid=2
6070175
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11. How does NEAR Health fit in?
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o combine elements of nature
o support us to live a life full of health
and to contribute to society

13. Stakeholders
“Any group or individual who can affect
or is affected by the achievement of the
organization’s objectives.”
Freeman’s classic definition of a stakeholder
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14. Values & Motivations?
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I am happiest when I am outside.
Many people are not aware that mental
health and wellbeing is very tied to
spending time in nature
The sound of the sea has a calming effect.
Spending more time outdoors and
in nature improves your sleep.
I have a sense of belonging and
attachment when I'm in nature.

15. Barriers?
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Not knowing how nature can be
incorporated into daily life can be a
barrier to engaging with it.
Lack of time is always a big barrier.
Weather can be a big deterrent for
people to go outside.Access to land can be
a barrier in Ireland.
Availability of transport can be a real
problem for some to access nature.
People can be afraid of nature
People think that if you live in the
city there is no nature.
People have become disconnected
from nature

16. Bridges?
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Peer support is key to engaging
people in nature
By showing people what nature is around
them they are more likely to want to keep and
conserve it
It is easy to access nature if you are
in the city.
It should be compulsory for children to take
part in an outdoor activity
Having a group leader to lead an
activity is really important to get
people engaged with the outdoors
Community events are key to engaging
people in nature
We have enough facilities for
people to access nature

17. What do communities want from their environment?
Back-casting with communities – what do they like to do outdoors?
Healthy future spaces: proactive tool to attain and restore health and wellbeing
◦ Design
◦ Promote
◦ Use
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18. Backcasting: What would you like to do?
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Identify drivers, events and
timeline. Create action plan
Envisage a healthy future
space which attracts
people to spend time and
be healthy there
Prioritise the most essential features
of the healthy future space

19. Visioning: What do people like to do
in their idealised future space?
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Local actions to get
involved with…
TA
Social events to do
with other people…

20. Motivators: What do communities identify as
essential to achieving their vision?
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Behavioural change at
Individual level
Behavioural change at
Community level
Policy or legislation change

21. Backcasting:
What action plans do communities propose?
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RH
Behavioural change at
National level
Behavioural change at
Community level
Behavioural change at
Individual level

22. Piloting Nature based measures & assessments
Community based
Locally led
Varying duration
Surveys included Qs from UK ONS and Monitoring Engagement with Natural Environment (MENE)

23. Beach Cleans: Doing good, feeling good
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Happiness
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Refreshed & revitalised
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Relaxed & calm
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Life Satisfaction
Before
After
N = 30, Location: Multiple 1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree

24. Promoting bats, promoting health
@NEARhealth_NUIGBefore , After , 1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree
‘at this moment I feel happy.’
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
‘at this moment I feel anxious.’
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
‘overall, I am satisfied with my life nowadays.’
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
‘overall, the things I do in my life are worthwhile’

25. Next steps… co-creating change
What toolkits can connect people,
nature and health?
Workshop to discover what
people want from toolkits?
Review and prioritise aspects of
existing toolkits
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26. Thank you for listening.
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Thanks to the EPA and HSE for funding the project, all the stakeholders for telling us
what they value.
The NEAR Health project, funded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Health Service
Executive under Grant Award No. 2015-HW-MS-2, supports the implementation of the EPA Strategic Plan 2016-
2020 – ‘Our Environment, Our wellbeing’ and Healthy Ireland, the national framework for action to improve
the health and wellbeing of the people of Ireland.