Advancing Green Health Workshop – hosted by Public Health Scotland, Nature Scot and Greenspace Scotland
/
Raising awareness among national networks and professional societies about CHEX, and how community-led health can help tackle health inequalities, is an important part of the job for the CHEX team.
One way we do that is to provide inputs and workshops at other national network organisation’s events and conferences.
Many organisations and practitioners within the CHEX Network are engaged in work which not only tackles health inequalities but is also focused on addressing the climate emergency, and SCDC recently published a resource focusing on community development and climate.
CHEX were invited by Public Health Scotland, Greenspace Scotland and Nature Scot to contribute to a cross sectoral workshop in June to share the knowledge, skills and experience from our Network in the development of Green Health in Scotland.
Sarah from the CHEX team was pleased to attend and share experiences from the Network on the importance of community development and community led approaches, and ensuring that inequalities that poverty and the health inequalities individuals and communities experience are taken into account when focusing on achieving positive health outcomes.
‘Green Health’ is focused on engagement with greenspace and nature which improves physical, mental and social health and wellbeing. Many of you are already engaged in work which both addresses health inequalities and contributes to climate action such as community growing projects, cycling projects and walking groups and we know that activity which focuses on the co-benefits to climate and health is an increasingly pressing priority and area of activity in communities across the country.
The workshop is the first of a series of planned events and activities focused on advancing green health. Both the climate emergency and Scotland’s persistent health inequalities can feel overwhelming problems for individuals and organisations. The workshop focused on practical actions to support and advance green health policy, practice and action in Scotland. We will keep you up to date as the work develops.
This is an increasingly important area of focus for CHEX and we’d love to hear what’s happening in local communities. If you would like to share your knowledge or experience in Green Health with the CHEX team or wider Network – get in touch we’d love to hear from you.