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. 2023 Sep 4;20(17):6708.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph20176708.

Green Social Prescribing in Practice: A Case Study of Walsall, UK

Qian Sun  1 , Mary Loveday  1 , Saw Nwe  1 , Nike Morris  1 , Emily Boxall  1
Affiliations

Green Social Prescribing in Practice: A Case Study of Walsall, UK

Qian Sun et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

This paper presents a case study of Green Social Prescribing (GSP) in Walsall, a medium-sized urban area located in the West Midlands, UK. GSP is a means of enabling health professionals to refer people to a range of local non-clinical nature-based activities, e.g., community gardening and conservation volunteering. As a new practice to address multiple challenges in health and sustainability, GSP has been promoted by the UK government and the NHS in the past few years. There is as yet limited evidence and knowledge about how this approach is implemented at a local level. This paper addresses this gap of knowledge, by exploring how GSP is implemented in Walsall as a case study. Based on extensive engagement and research activities with the local partners to collect data, this paper reveals the local contexts of GSP, the referral pathways, and people's lived experience, discussing the challenges, barriers, and opportunities in delivering GSP at the local level. This study suggests that a more collaborative and genuine place-based approach is essential, and alongside GSP, investment into infrastructure is needed to move the health paradigm further from 'prevention' to 'promotion' so that more people can benefit from what nature can offer.

Keywords: Green Social Prescribing; Social Prescribing; Walsall; case study; link worker; place-based thinking.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. Author Nike Morris was employed by the company The MindKind Projects. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Key function areas of local GSP.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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