Today, March 20, 2025, is Social Prescribing Day. But what is Social Prescribing?

Social Prescribing is a method consisting of connecting people to non-medical support to address issues like loneliness, stress or isolation, topics that we target a lot with RECETAS.

Some countries like the United Kingdom have specific professionals to do this, Social Prescribing Link Workers, but it is really about helping people in need of help to access connection. For example, you can help an isolated loved one by making them join a community gardening group! Which is actually something that we can do with RECETAS : it is good for your health, check it out –> The scientific reasons you should resolve to start gardening.

RECETAS is a Horizon 2020 funded project that aims to connect people together within a setting of nature to help alleviate their loneliness. We are working with 6 different pilot cities, Barcelona, Helsinki, Prague, Cuenca, Marseille and Melbourne, to show how beneficial nature-based social prescribing can be.

As we are embarking on our fifth year of work, we would love to keep you updated on this fascinating journey!

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Social Prescribing Day is organized by the National Academy for Social Prescribing, check out their website!

L’article Social Prescribing Day est apparu en premier sur Recetas.

L’article Striving to Connect est apparu en premier sur Recetas.

What if we adopted the 3-30-300 rule imagined by Dutch urbanist Cecil Konijnendijk? Every citizen should be able to see at least three trees from their home, live in an area with at least 30% of green surface, and be less than 300 meters away from a green space.

This recent article from French newspaper Le Monde revisits evidence that nature benefits one’s physical and mental health. In 2018, a british study evaluated the links between the prevalence of depression symptoms and access to green spaces. The study followed 94 879 adults from age 37 to 79. The result was that adults living in the greener area had a risk of suffering from depression reduced by 13% compared to those living in a less green area.

According to Mathilde Pascal, from Santé Publique France (Public Health France), if cities implemented in every neighbourhood as much green spaces that there are in their greenest areas, mortality would drop by 3 to 7%.

RECETAS is highlighted in this article, especially our Marseille-based research team, and their work focusing on economically vulnerable adults, often subjected to stigmatization. With RECETAS, they participate every week to group activities in nature : walks in the Calanques, plant gathering, visits of the Frioul island, gardening, etc. « We can already see a reduction of stress and anxiety among participants. »

L’article RECETAS featured in French newspaper Le Monde est apparu en premier sur Recetas.

The importance of nature of one’s health:

Interactions with nature, such as forest bathing, have been shown to improve both one’s mental and physical health : ‘lower blood pressure, a stabilised nervous system, fewer stress hormones, boosted immune function, and reduced anxiety, depression, anger and fatigue’, the list of benefits is long, the results pointing in that direction are numerous.

From 2019… To now:
In 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, the RECETAS project started by taking this knowledge into account, with the intention of researching what would happened if it was combined to social connection in a group.

Now in its fourth year, RECETAS is currently running trials in our six pilots cities, advocating in favor of nature-based social prescriptions as a way to efficiently alleviate loneliness. The nature-based social prescriptions menus are co-created with participants to respect their desires, accordingly to local contexts.

Focus on one of our pilot cities: Melbourne
Nature helps us focus on the present but also has the capacity to help us remembering what is bright from our past, providing a sense of home when needed. This is particularly powerful in settings such as the one of our Melbourne pilot, where RECETAS researchers work LGBTI asylum seekers.

One of RECETAS participants spoke to Julia Hotz and said: « When the group was ending, I realised how much I was going to miss that routine of seeing the same people each week, just spending some time in nature, and feeling that sense of belonging […] It kind of killed my loneliness. »

L’article RECETAS featured in a BBC article! est apparu en premier sur Recetas.

Webinar: Creating a healthy environment for communities and citizens – what evidence best supports urban health policy-making?

• 28 February 2023, at 11am
  
• Online
  

The webinar – organised by the HEART project, member of the European Urban Health Cluster– will explore the impacts of urban environment on health outcomes at both collective and individual level. Panellists will address questions such as ‘How are urban policies currently designed?’, ‘Which evidence do policy-makers need to take decisions about urban planning and infrastructure?’, ‘How can we ensure universal access to blue and green spaces?’.

« In 2021, 75% of the total population of the European Union lived in urban areas. Urban areas can have both positive and negative effects on human health. Citizens living in urban areas have better access to care facilities but are also exposed to higher infrastructure density, heavier air pollution, and increased stress. Cities whose urban planning policies are steered by health priorities are obviously more advanced in disease prevention and wellbeing promotion. There is also growing evidence that blue and green spaces have beneficial and restorative effects on mental and physical health. The Covid-19 pandemic has further highlighted the importance of contact with blue and green spaces to reduce stress, carry out physical activity, and provide opportunities for social interaction. Expecting further increase in the urban population in the coming decades, we should reflect on what kind of urban policy design will make current and future generations thrive and if universal access to blue and green spaces in the city can help to reduce health inequalities by their positive impact on wellbeing. »

> More information & registration

ALL EVENTS

L’article Creating a healthy environment for communities and citizens est apparu en premier sur Recetas.