‘It has changed my life’: How a dose of nature is treating mental illness
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<p>A project in London is helping hundreds of people, providing a genuine alternative to traditional treatments</p><p>“What you’ve got there from the sun on your face is a massive boost of serotonin!” says Alison Greenwood, founder of Dose of Nature, the charity successfully prescribing time outside as a treatment for mental health.</p><p>Greenwood is striding round Pensford Field, a tiny patch of wildness tucked behind houses in south-west London. The bright day is
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Dose of Nature has already delivered 1,500 one-to-one courses and is outperforming standard NHS talking therapies. Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian A project in London is helping hundreds of people, providing a genuine alternative to traditional treatments By Damian Carrington “W hat you’ve got there from the sun on your face is a massive boost of serotonin!” says Alison Greenwood, founder of Dose of Nature, the charity successfully prescribing time outside as a treatment for mental health. Greenwood is striding round Pensford Field, a tiny patch of wildness tucked behind houses in south-west London . The bright day is illuminating the early blackthorn blossom, gleaming off the pond where a heron watches tiny froglets and shadows of birch trees on a wood-chip path. “All these trees and plants are giving off phytoncides, and they’re good for your immune system too,” the former NHS psychologist says. Dose of Nature has already delivered 1,500 one-to-one courses and is outperforming standard NHS talking therapies, boasting a recovery rate of 64% compared with the health service’s 50%, and a reliable improvement rate of 86% compared with 69%. Unlike most green social prescribing schemes , clients are referred directly by their GPs. “Our nature prescriptions are a genuine alternative to medication and more traditional psychological therapies,” Greenwood says. The key, she says, is the rediscovery of something very old: “The idea that nature is good for our mental health and wellbeing has been around for millennia. We evolved outside, under the sky, [and so] we are animals that are caged most of our time, in schools or cars or offices or homes. As soon as we get outside, we’re free.” “It’s only relatively recently that we’ve forgotten this – I would say this is an unfortunate blip in our history,” she says. There are two key parts to the Dose of Nature prescription: helping people get outside and, once there, to start noticing nature to calm their minds and bodies. I...
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