Green Social Prescribing with Helen Holmes and Sam Alford

Environment Deep Dive

Justine Solomons-Moat, DEFRA, discusses Green Social Prescribing with Helen Holmes, DEFRA, and Sam Alford, NHS England and NHS Improvement.

Helen Holmes is the Joint Head of the Access & Engagement with Nature Team in DEFRA's Natural Environment, Trees and Landscapes Directorate.

Sam Alford is the Senior Manager of the Green Social Prescribing Programme in NHS England and NHS Improvement's Personalised Care Group.

Social prescribing and community-based support enable GPs, other health and care practitioners, and local agencies to refer people to a link worker who gives people time and focuses on what matters to the individual. For some people this will be green social prescribing, which links them to nature-based interventions and activities, such as local walking for health schemes, community gardening, and food-growing projects.

The Green Social Prescribing Programme to tackle and prevent mental ill-health will test how to embed green social prescribing into communities in order to: improve mental health outcomes; reduce health inequalities; reduce demand on the health and social care system; and develop best practice in making green social activities more resilient and accessible.

This project is run by multiple partners, including: Department of Health and Social Care, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Natural England, NHS England and NHS Improvement, Public Health England, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, National Academy for Social Prescribing and Sport England.

You can contact the Green Social Prescribing inbox at: [e-mail]