Written by Coed Lleol Health professionals will gather in a woodland next week as the first steps towards creating a “Natural Health Service” are taken.

Members of several care organisations will be urged to refer people in poor health to their local
Richard Davies woodland in a bid to help them live longer, healthier lives.

Forestry Commission Wales (FC Wales) wants to encourage GPs to prescribe a woodland walk for some of their patients instead of referring them to their local gym.  FCW is working with Coed Lleol, a Wales-wide initiative to reconnect people and woodlands in Wales, to run two innovative pilot programmes in Aberystwyth and Treherbert.

This radical new approach to treating a variety of mental and physical illnesses is based on the natural environment’s ability to improve health and well being by reducing stress and providing opportunities for exercise.

On the 28th January, health workers, GP referral coordinator, BTCV, Communities First and other health networks will attend a Participatory Planning Day in Cwmsaebren woods in Treherbert, Rhondda Cynon Taf.
Richard Davies, FC Wales Policy and Programme Advisor, said, “Currently, health professionals tend to refer people to indoor activity, such as gyms, rather than to the outdoors. This is generally owing to a lack of awareness of the additional benefits exercising in the outdoors – and especially in woodland – can deliver.

“Woodlands are especially useful environments in which to promote health and well-being to a broad section of the population as they provide inexpensive places to visit.”
There is strong medical evidence of the link between physical activity and lower rates of obesity, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis and type 2 diabetes, as well as reductions in the incidence of some cancers, greater mobility and fewer injuries associated with ageing in the elderly.

In the UK, obesity rates have tripled in the past 20 years and it is estimated that, by 2050, 60% of the population and one in four under 16 years old will be obese. By 2020, the World Health Organisation claims that depression will be the second most prevalent cause of ill health.
Following the Participatory Planning Day, FC Wales has contracted Coed Lleol to deliver two five-week programmes of woodland activities aimed at increasing physical activity, mobility and generating an interest and link between local people and their woodlands.

The pilot schemes will take place in two of the Welsh Assembly Government’s regeneration areas – in Aberystwyth and in Treherbert in the Heads of the Valleys, south Wales.