PARTNERSHIPS
The Natural Health Service – Croydon, will be London’s first, formed of a consortium of expert organisations using nature to support individual wellbeing and the development of resilient and healthy communities.
Our non profit consortium includes: Good Food Matters, Good Gym, The Conservation Volunteers, Wheels for Wellbeing and Wild in the City.
In our second phase the Natural Health Service aims to promote and provide activities throughout London’s boroughs.
Please get in touch if you’d like to partner with us and add your activity to the growing Natural Health Service programme.
Benefits to the National Health Service and the Borough of Croydon
Croydon’s Natural Health Service is unique, using nature to support individual wellbeing and the development of resilient and healthy communities; utilising natural capital to support emotional, physical and social wellbeing; and as a means of relieving pressure on the NHS – addressing both preventative and reactive healthcare and social pressures.
By working outdoors to engage communities in improving their green spaces and enhancing local biodiversity, the programme will also address Ambitious for Croydon’s goal to be the cleanest and greenest borough.
Through offering five different but complementary options for residents, the service addresses Croydon’s Physical Health Strategy’s goal of ensuring Croydon adults and children have the opportunity to complete or exceed the recommended weekly uptake of exercise of 150 and 60 minutes, respectively.
As residents increase their exercise uptake through the Natural Health Service it will support Croydon in decreasing the amount of money it is spending on inactivity, currently £5.7million per annum. In addition, this service will support reductions in the £1.2 million spent on diabetes, £0.9million spent on cerebrovascular diseases and £2.8 million spent on coronary heart disease, all of which can be prevented through increases in habitual physical exercise.
The Conservation Volunteers’ Green Gym programme is a powerful example of how cost savings can be made. An independent report by the New Economics Foundation calculated the economic benefits of Green Gyms are estimated to be up to £7,370.19 per annum per person which is broken down as follows:
- Avoided prescription costs – £258.27
- Avoided medical consultation costs – £408.92
- Avoided costs of diabetes complications – £1,815
- Avoided use of alcohol outpatient treatment – £4,888