Culture Change for Health Care Green Space Engagement

The proposed work builds on a project that aimed to encourage greater use of hospital grounds for health and well-being benefit. It will utilise materials produced within the project such as workshop frameworks, an engagement toolkit and greenspace intervention evaluation guidance to disseminate knolwedge to health services managers, clinical staff, other health care workers, environmental sector professionals and voluntary sector agencies about how to get staff, visitors and patients using healthcare buildings' grounds and adjacent 'public' greensapce for health and well-being benefit. The main activities will be: (i) Combined dissemination and training workshops for health service managers and clinical staff. (ii) Cross-sector (health, environment, public and voluntary) networking and exchange events. Each of these activities will be held at three sites within the NHS Forth Valley region; one in NHS Highalnd and an additional two sites in other Scottish health board areas. We will hold workshops at which NHS staff, environmental sector staff and voluntary sector staff can learn about the knowledge and materials generated in our original project. The workshops will involve training in tools and methods for encouraging greenspace use through participatory planning; leading conservation and other outdoor activities; and monitoring and measuring the benefits of outdoor activities. As a result of the workshops, the stakeholders will devise a plan for activities and small changes that could be made at their healthcare settings (e.g. healthcare centres) to encourage people to use the outdoors for health and well-being benefit. These plans will outline the roles that stakeholders such as the NHS, Forestry Commission, Local Authority and local voluntary sector will play in the future development of greenspace activities. Taking part in the workshops will equip stakeholders with the tools needed to plan and deliver greenspace activities at various types of healthcare setting. This work will help build relationships between the health, environment and community sectors for the management and use of outdoor spaces associated with, or adjacent to, healthcare buildings. The work aims to bring health and well-being benefits to staff, patients and community members through their increased use of such spaces.