Green Referral

Description: Green referral is an umbrella term used to describe the referral of individuals to groups, interventions or services that support engagement with nature-based interventions based in natural or semi-natural ‘green’ environments, to improve their health and wellbeing. The term green gym is used to describe environments such as such as forests, grasslands, gardens and parks in which an individual may partake in physical activities and/or exercise. Examples of green referral activities can include, walking or running in parks, or volunteering to clear and maintain woodland.

Ecotherapy falls under the umbrella of green referral. It is a formal type of therapeutic treatment which involves doing outdoor activities in nature with the aim of providing an adjunctive complement to existing treatments for mild-to-moderate mental health conditions. Care farming, also known as social farming falls under the umbrella terms of ecotherapy and green referral. It is a specific type of green care intervention that has been defined as the use of commercial farming and agricultural landscapes to promote mental and physical health through normal farming activity. Care farming is essentially voluntary work in an agricultural or horticultural environment for psychological and/or physiological benefit.

Alternative Terms: care farming, creative green prescription, ecotherapy, green careSC, green care services, green health partnerships, green health referral pathways, green prescribingHC, social farming

Connected Terms: Active signposting, blue referral, books on referral, community assets, Community & Voluntary Sector Organisations, creative referral, education on referral, exercise referral, nature-based interventions, practice managed schemes, referral, social prescribing pathway, social prescribing practitioner, welfare support referral, wellbeing.

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