This is among the findings of a new report looking at green prescribing across the UK by a team from Sheffield University.
However, researchers also found that nature-based organisations believed they were constrained by an inability to engage with GPs and primary care professionals.
This disharmony underlines the need for a common vocabulary and ways to effectively collaborate that cross the two disciplines:
Green prescribing has the potential to make an important contribution to personal and planetary health, but more support and research are needed
Report authors
‘Alongside the research that is needed to gain a greater understanding of the interventions themselves, additional action is needed to improve the infrastructure management required to connect the different stakeholders and to establish effective referral and monitoring processes—with personalised approaches in mind,’ says the report published in the International Journal of Environmental Research.
Researchers mapped the distribution of ‘numerous’ GPs prescribing nature-based interventions across the UK and the locations of organisations offering such services.
Higher levels of green prescribing were associated with the presence of green spaces close to surgeries and nature-based organisations being within a few miles.
The report concludes: ‘Green prescribing has the potential to make an important contribution to personal and planetary health, but more support and research are needed to initiate, optimize and sustain these strategies.’
The full report can be read here
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