Changing the lens: Provider perspectives on Green Social Prescribing.
Organisations that offer opportunities for nature engagement make an important contribution to GSP but they often face many challenges and their full potential isn’t always recognised. These are the findings from recent research published by DEFRA – Changing the lens: Provider perspectives on Green Social Prescribing. This detailed study from the perspective of GSP providers found that difficulties faced by providers include knowing what level of support is expected of them, overcoming barriers to people joining and persisting with their activities, and gaining sustained funding. Being able to provide all the elements of support and services required for individuals seeking GSP is another challenge, especially for smaller providers.
The report makes various recommendations to address these challenges. Developing frameworks to match levels of mental health support to GSP provision could help ensure that referrals are appropriate for the provider. Having social prescribers accompany individuals for their first session and providing ongoing support should help individuals overcome barriers to attending sessions. If social prescribers cannot undertake this role, then working in partnership with other organisations can help smaller providers cover this and other elements of support required for individuals to make the most of the GSP provision.
GSP providers also offer much more than just mental health benefits to their participants. Nature engagement has the potential to improve health and wellbeing for whole communities and the natural world itself. In addition, through working with community leaders and established community organisations, GSP providers can create opportunities to develop community leadership, create new community spaces and new community organisations around these spaces. Recognising these broader benefits of GSP provision may help providers tap into other funding streams, as well as being part of the bigger government goal of “enhancing beauty, heritage and engagement with the natural world.”
For further details of this research, see here for a summary report and the full published article.