Nature health scheme aims to boost wellbeing

A project to boost people's physical and mental health by spending time outdoors is being trialled across North Yorkshire.

The scheme, dubbed the Natural Health Service, aims to help people struggling with loneliness and isolation. It is part of a £7m programme run by North Yorkshire Mayor David Skaith.

Over ten weeks, participants join a range of outdoor-based activities, all designed to build their confidence and help them to be more physically active.

Participant Babs Callaghan, from York, is a carer for her husband and said: "This gives me the break that I desperately need."

Callaghan is among a group of 60 people, including other unpaid carers, who are taking part in the initiative.

She said: "If I didn't get a break and walk away from it sometimes, I would be on the floor. It can be very stressful, more at some times than others.

"But if you don't get a break from it and walk away from it sometimes, then you are going to get ill."

Participants can refer themselves, or be referred through the NHS's social prescribing service, which is designed to get people involved with community-based services to boost mental wellbeing.

Moira Craig, who is also part of the group, said she loved being out in the countryside and the programme, which aims to look at the outdoors "in-depth," was "very different."

"It's been fascinating," she said.

"We do an exercise where we look at things in miniature. It's lovely going out walking, but this is seeing the beauty in a different way.

"This gives you that big breath away from your home.

"You get so caught up in organising hospital and doctors appointments, they're really difficult and take forever.

"So to come and do something like this is magical really."

The health service trial is being led by the North York Moors Trust, an independent charity that brings together the county's protected landscapes - the two national parks, the Howardian Hills and Nidderdale National Landscapes - where the activities will be run.

James Metcalfe, the trust's executive director, said loneliness was at "epidemic levels" in the UK.

"We see it a lot, whether people have physical or mental health challenges, that loneliness, that feeling of being indoors, not socialising, feeling detached, has a real knock-on effect, particularly on mental health," he said.

"What we are doing through the Natural Health Service is giving people an opportunity to come out into the landscape, but to do it with other people, create friendships, joy, laughter, all the things that make people feel good."

Skaith said he could not wait to see the outcomes of the scheme.

"People feel less isolated when they come into these areas and feel part of a community," he said.

"This is a great example of how we can use what makes our region special to build healthier and thriving communities."

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