Health
Social Prescription
We work in partnership with public health teams, GPs, Clinical Commissioning Groups, charities and other health professionals to deliver initiatives that create better settings for health and promote behaviour change – increasing physical activity, promoting healthy diets and reducing anxiety and risk.
Our projects and services are increasingly available on social prescription and aim to ‘create health’ by enabling people to increase their contact with nature and build their confidence, control and connections within their local community.
We also work with health organisations to improve their estates, creating therapeutic environments in outdoor spaces and supporting actions to reduce carbon impact like implementing an environmental management system.
We can help you:
Promote healthy behaviours and tackle isolation: our local community initiatives help create healthier, greener places to live, provide community activities that help people build networks and make healthier choices and support people through practical volunteering to boost wellbeing and manage health conditions.
Transform healthcare grounds: our experienced land team can work with your staff, patients and visitors to develop therapeutic environments that bring the benefits of nature into healthcare settings.
Green your organisation: we can help your organisation become greener, make cost savings and stay on top of the trend towards a low carbon economy.
Improving health and wellbeing through open spaces
We believe that everyone deserves access to high-quality open spaces that promote health and wellbeing. That’s why we work to create and improve green spaces in communities across the UK.
Our work includes:
- Designing and delivering projects that improve the health and wellbeing of communities, such as creating new play spaces for children, developing community gardens, planting trees and other vegetation to improve air quality, and building walking and cycling routes.
- Working with local authorities and housing associations to improve the open spaces in their areas.
- Supporting residents to get involved in the design and management of their local green spaces.
We believe that open spaces are essential for our health and wellbeing. They provide us with opportunities to exercise, connect with nature, and relax. They also help to reduce stress, improve air quality, and create a sense of community.
Here are some of the benefits of open spaces:
- Physical health: Open spaces encourage physical activity, which can help to reduce obesity, heart disease, and other chronic health conditions.
- Mental health: Open spaces can help to reduce stress, anxiety, and depression. They can also improve mood, sleep, and concentration.
- Social health: Open spaces provide a space for people to connect with each other and build relationships. They can also help to reduce social isolation and loneliness.
- Environmental health: Open spaces can help to improve air quality, reduce noise pollution, and mitigate the effects of climate change.
If you are interested in learning more about how Groundwork can help you to improve the health and wellbeing of your community, please contact us today.
Together, we can create healthier, more sustainable communities for everyone.
Health Partnerships
We are active members in the public health arena, participating in several local care partnerships and strategic health and wellbeing boards with the aim of positioning ourselves as a partner of choice for health commissioners. Similarly, we are part of the Leeds Green Activity Provider network which brings together environmental organisations across Leeds to create a strengthened partnership to enable us to participate in larger health funded activities. We have secured public health funding to develop and deliver a new socially prescribed gardening programme in the Belle Isle area of Leeds aimed at local residents with chronic respiratory disease and/or hypertension.
Our work consistently brings about improvements to the quality of life and wellbeing for people living in the communities we are a part of, most notably in Morley. Our crisis response role in the pandemic as a Community Hub has now developed to being the Lead Community Anchor for the Outer South Leeds locality. The Leeds Community Anchor network is a positive legacy of Covid 19, an organic progression; born from emergency now stabilising and aiming to strengthen the partnerships which formed them.
Other projects will include the creation of opportunities to participate in gardening and food growing, healthy eating, walking, community sports and active play. We have a well-established healthy holiday programme that provides active play and a healthy lunch for families in need across our operational area and will continue to run and grow this throughout this year. The Green Guardians project is running for a third year across Leeds to improve people’s gardens as a way of positively impacting people’s mental health. Similar services will also be offered from our operational hubs in Selby and Hull.
Beat The Heat
Practical health advice on heatwaves: who is vulnerable, what to look out for, how to protect against it. Even though the weather this Summer so far has been colder than average and full of rain this can change rapidly. So this is a guide by our Green Doctor team to help Beat The Heat. Select the image below to download the document.
