Not long to go until the NHS Forest conference 2014. The NHS Forest team are looking forward to the event on the 7th October at Whittingham sports centre hosted by Lancashire Care Trust.
The agenda for the day is full of exciting presentations and innovative workshops including "Green Prescriptions", "How to Engage Clinicans" and "Funding a Forest site", to name but a few. To find out more please see here.
The NHS Forest has been shortlisted for an HSJ award in the "Improving Environmental and Social Sustainability Category". With over 1300 entries this year we are very pleased to have got through the first round. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the dedicated staff working at our 130 NHS Forest sites who have helped make this project such a success!
Applied Arboriculture: Healthy Trees, Healthy People
The Arboricultural Association's 48th National Amenity Conference
14-17 September, 2014
Royal Holloway, University of London
More details on our Events page.
2.30 pm Look around the Ditchley boiler and wood stack Optional
3.00 pm Tea and cake in the main house
3.30 pm “Why Woodfuel, where from, how does it work, how much does it cost, incentives”
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust has been implementing many different innovative ideas since the new Queen Elizabeth Hospital was built three years ago. Starting with setting up a fruit and veg stall, to provide a healthy alternative to what was sold in the shops inside, a monthly farmers market followed 18 months later and now orchards and hay meadows are being planted, woodland thinned out and paths put in, while volunteer-led walks are being set up inside and outside the hospital to help the elderly stay mobile throughout the year.
Photo: Courtesy the Food and Environment Agency (Fera), Crown Copyright
Want to help save bees that play such a huge role in our ecosystems? The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) launched a Call to Action for land managers large or small on 18th July to help rejuvenate our buzzy friends. You can create or improve your habitats for all pollinators in 5 simple ways:
1. Grow more flowers, shrubs and trees
Airedale Hospital in Keighley, West Yorkshire was one of the NHS Forest's pilot sites in 2009 and has planted hundreds of trees. In 2013, the hospital received funding for a dementia ward that included a dementia garden as part of its overall design. Designed and built for under £10,000, it was widely supported within the hospital; the head gardener even did an elearning dementia course to inform his design of the garden.
Spending time in forests and woodlands can have a significant positive impact on physical and mental health and wellbeing, a report commissioned by The Mersey Forest and compiled by Forestry Commission's Forest Research division, has found. It explores the health benefits associated with different forms of mindfulness in the forest, from the Japanese concept of forest-bathing to forest walking. You can access the full report on the Mersey Forest website.
The NHS Forest 2014 Awards are now open with a brand new entry: Most Pioneering Use of Green Space by a Clinician. For a chance to win up to £400, and to find out how to enter visit the awards page.
At the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare, we are pleased to announce that we will be facilitating the setting up of a green health route in Marston, Oxford. As we spend our days highlighting all the fabulous projects on the NHS Forest sites, facilitating knowledge exchange through the website and the NHS Forest conference (book now for October!), it's great to be running a hands-on project ourselves.
