Bushcraft and Mental Health

[ManFriday4]

I established and ran a green spaces project for the MH NHS Trust I work with & was lucky enough to also receive a staffrecognition award for it.

I have had patients with severe generalised anxiety dig over a plot with me & 10 minutes in tell me they feel less anxious. Our ward consultant recognises that gardening is important therapeutically and contributes to shorter in-patient stays & if confused in the community reduces readmission.

From my own perspective & my own mental health.

In 2019 I was severely assaulted by a patient while working on the ward. When I eventually returned to work lockdown happened- I had (have) PTSD. Bushcraft was my lifeline to self directed therapy while working on the frontline.

It helped me restore my confidence. I had ceased going out, avoided social media & couldn't go out socially, apart from to the homes of a few friends. I struggled to talk about what happened. (Please don't comment on this aspect of this comment- it doesn't.) Nursing staff can use reasonable force protect themselves & I did, I also had a severe concussion.

Bushcraft is something we can't really teach to our acutely unwell patients. Knives & fires are banned on our site. We do have an orchard & soft fruit garden & encourage patients to take the fruit, do cooking activities with the apples & blackberries & have our own named label of apple juice- which the patients pick, including named single variety juices such as Tom Putt & Emperor Alexander. We also have a polytunnel and an allotment.

All green spaces activities involving tools are covered by risk assessments & they are stringent.

Walks in nature, spotting and logging wildlife and year round tree recognition and owl walks were activities I have led.

 

[Wander]

Hello Man Friday.
I also work for a mental health NHS Trust and instigated a few green therapies. We're lucky though, since our Trust has a very strong green therapy programme.
Drop me a PM and we can exchange stories and ideas if you want.

 

[gibson 175]

Hi Chaps. I work in a rehab/assessment unit for elderly-mostly frail.
Many residents need aids for walking or wheelchairs,some are ok. As always it's a question of funding ie who will run the activity,fund resources etc. With my clientele any activity will need at least 3 or 4 staff for a group of 6 to 10 clients,depending on mobility and cognition. Is there any funding out there for that might help me?
I have lots of ideas for green activities.I could of course wing it and run an activity myself,even some sort of risk assessed bushcraft experience. However in my experience working with outside agencies/partners using profesionals leads to a better more quality activity. I know a lot of agencies and smaller charities disappeared in the pandemic
BTW In my previous job in over 60s independent living my clients were more mobile and we did some bushcraft sessions with the Park Rangers in a park. So...any ideas where I could look for funding,apart from local councillors who are usually skint. I know alot of funding has dried up so I don't know if I would be wasting my time.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that bushcraft or similar activities are fantastic for mental health. The question is how do we give people the opportunity and how do we convince those who are reluctant due to lack of confidence/shyness that they will love it.

 

[gibson 175]

Anyone seen any success with green social prescribing? Have activities been developed? or are the soacial prescribers just pointing people to what is already there in the community? There are rumble of it in Nottingham,but I have moved away. Social prescribing seems to be slightly different depending wherabouts in the UK you are.

 

[ManFriday4]

Since my h

I established and ran a green spaces project for the MH NHS Trust I work with & was lucky enough to also receive a staffrecognition award for it.

I have had patients with severe generalised anxiety dig over a plot with me & 10 minutes in tell me they feel less anxious. Our ward consultant recognises that gardening is important therapeutically and contributes to shorter in-patient stays & if confused in the community reduces readmission.

From my own perspective & my own mental health.

In 2019 I was severely assaulted by a patient while working on the ward. When I eventually returned to work lockdown happened- I had (have) PTSD. Bushcraft was my lifeline to self directed therapy while working on the frontline.

It helped me restore my confidence. I had ceased going out, avoided social media & couldn't go out socially, apart from to the homes of a few friends. I struggled to talk about what happened. (Please don't comment on this aspect of this comment- it doesn't.) Nursing staff can use reasonable force protect themselves & I did, I also had a severe concussion.

Bushcraft is something we can't really teach to our acutely unwell patients. Knives & fires are banned on our site. We do have an orchard & soft fruit garden & encourage patients to take the fruit, do cooking activities with the apples & blackberries & have our own named label of apple juice- which the patients pick, including named single variety juices such as Tom Putt & Emperor Alexander. We also have a polytunnel and an allotment.

All green spaces activities involving tools are covered by risk assessments & they are stringent.

Walks in nature, spotting and logging wildlife and year round tree recognition and owl walks were activities I have led.

Es

Anyone seen any success with green social prescribing? Have activities been developed? or are the soacial prescribers just pointing people to what is already there in the community? There are rumble of it in Nottingham,but I have moved away. Social prescribing seems to be slightly different depending wherabouts in the UK you are.

Not formally though our ward consultant does give S17 leave for gardening activities to that it's demarcated.

 

[Wander]

Yes, it wouldn't surprise me if social prescription was a bit hit and miss across the country.
I'm not aware of any central government funding for it.
Some GP surgeries might offer it, but it will more than likely be a provision offered by a third sector/social enterprise/community organisation who has managed to tap into some local government funding (and the precarious nature of that).
It's very likely your local county wildlife trust runs some kind of green therapy (ours does). Could go by many different names, but I'm sure if you contact them they will let you know. Of course, who is eligible to take part will all depend on what the criteria of the funding is - young, old, etc.
Local authorities may also run green activities (often without realising it) - parks need rangers. Local conservation groups also offer similar opportunities. Problem with these is that they are not designed specifically as a 'therapeutic' activity, so may not be a solution for more acute sufferers.
If it is older adults you are looking for, then what about asking Age UK and Alzheimer's Society? Especially the latter, who will have contacts with organisations offering such activities.
At our NHS trust we run a social prescription service for our service users, whether they are inpatient or out patient, so long as they are registered with us we'll support them.
It seems an important part of any social prescription service is building up that network of organisations offering activities. Start networking and exploring is the only answer. I'd find it hard to believe someone in Nottingham isn't offering some sort of service like that.

 

[gibson 175]

Yes, it wouldn't surprise me if social prescription was a bit hit and miss across the country.
I'm not aware of any central government funding for it.
Some GP surgeries might offer it, but it will more than likely be a provision offered by a third sector/social enterprise/community organisation who has managed to tap into some local government funding (and the precarious nature of that).
It's very likely your local county wildlife trust runs some kind of green therapy (ours does). Could go by many different names, but I'm sure if you contact them they will let you know. Of course, who is eligible to take part will all depend on what the criteria of the funding is - young, old, etc.
Local authorities may also run green activities (often without realising it) - parks need rangers. Local conservation groups also offer similar opportunities. Problem with these is that they are not designed specifically as a 'therapeutic' activity, so may not be a solution for more acute sufferers.
If it is older adults you are looking for, then what about asking Age UK and Alzheimer's Society? Especially the latter, who will have contacts with organisations offering such activities.
At our NHS trust we run a social prescription service for our service users, whether they are inpatient or out patient, so long as they are registered with us we'll support them.
It seems an important part of any social prescription service is building up that network of organisations offering activities. Start networking and exploring is the only answer. I'd find it hard to believe someone in Nottingham isn't offering some sort of service like that.

Yes I did meet the social prescribing team in Nottingham. Also,they had just started tentatively with green social prescribing just before I moved elsewhere in the country. Really appreciate your reply.

 

[TeeDee]

My offering

Several years ago I went through what felt like a very difficult time to me - I was working a shift pattern and noticed I was becoming somewhat agoraphobic on my shift off - not wishing to go out or do anything. Completely rudderless and without direction just on the same mundane hamster wheel grind of working and days off like Sisyphus.

I can't say it was Bushcraft that necessarily helped but I did get into wild swimming - swimming in lakes, rivers, lochs, fetid pools and flooded quarries - it was as much the actual act of having something pre-planned ( I 'had' to go and swim in a new location every shift off ) as the swimming itself and being immersed in nature at its most raw that seemed to help.

Now its very trendy and en vogue with Wim Hoff and different studies supporting the notion that swimming is good for mental health and well being due to cold exposure - which i would agree with.

I think whatever one does when facing some mental struggles , as long as it can offer direction, change and structure that removes one from ( albeit temporarily from ones own dark thoughts ) can be a welcome and beneficial distraction. That could be in forest , climbing munros , geo-caching - anything that provides a mental/emotional option to explore is a good thing.

The other thing ( especially for guys ) is too talk with people as much as we tend to internalise our thought process -talking with whomever you can and keep doing it until you feel better in yourself. I can't stress that enough - if you notice a friend that seems out of sorts , quiet , distant and you think they are struggling - keep talking to them - even if its not the deep stuff ( which they may choose to talk about in time ) - just natter and keep as a constant option in their lives.

 

[Nice65]

There are those of us who have grown up in, or have good experience of the serenity to be found by slowing down in a natural environment and actively seek it because we know it’s good for us. The fire making and skills are the bushcraft bonus, there’s a huge satisfaction in simple things like suspending a pot over a fire or even getting a bacon sarnie cooked and singeing the edges of your toast.

There are those who have been recommended walking and spending time exercising both mind and body outdoors, who may be less familiar with watching a leaf drop, or sitting still long enough a bird or other creature comes close, who then find nature wonderfully calming. Not least in part, to being forced to spend some time with oneself, undistracted.

Both are challenging, and potentially rewarding, mentally. That can only be a good thing. As long as you don’t end up cold, wet, hypothermic, starving, or lost that is

Mind you, most of us have had at least one of those things happen and learned from it, appreciated it in hindsight.

 

[Laurentius]

Anyone seen any success with green social prescribing? Have activities been developed? or are the soacial prescribers just pointing people to what is already there in the community? There are rumble of it in Nottingham,but I have moved away. Social prescribing seems to be slightly different depending wherabouts in the UK you are.

My GP has talked about establishing a gardening club based around the surgery and has invited me to help organise it when it gets going, but so far nothing has progressed beyond the talk stage. I guess I shall have to prod his memory as spring draws near.

 

[ManFriday4]

I established and ran a green spaces project for the MH NHS Trust I work with & was lucky enough to also receive a staffrecognition award for it.

I have had patients with severe generalised anxiety dig over a plot with me & 10 minutes in tell me they feel less anxious. Our ward consultant recognises that gardening is important therapeutically and contributes to shorter in-patient stays & if confused in the community reduces readmission.

From my own perspective & my own mental health.

In 2019 I was severely assaulted by a patient while working on the ward. When I eventually returned to work lockdown happened- I had (have) PTSD. Bushcraft was my lifeline to self directed therapy while working on the frontline.

It helped me restore my confidence. I had ceased going out, avoided social media & couldn't go out socially, apart from to the homes of a few friends. I struggled to talk about what happened. (Please don't comment on this aspect of this comment- it doesn't.) Nursing staff can use reasonable force protect themselves & I did, I also had a severe concussion.

Bushcraft is something we can't really teach to our acutely unwell patients. Knives & fires are banned on our site. We do have an orchard & soft fruit garden & encourage patients to take the fruit, do cooking activities with the apples & blackberries & have our own named label of apple juice- which the patients pick, including named single variety juices such as Tom Putt & Emperor Alexander. We also have a polytunnel and an allotment.

All green spaces activities involving tools are covered by risk assessments & they are stringent.

Walks in nature, spotting and logging wildlife and year round tree recognition and owl walks were activities I have led.

I had been an avid wild camper and bushcrafter for a couple of decades before 2019. The trauma lost me the will to do stuff I enjoyed!

This is the thing about anxiety. It was a colleague who had been through the same experience who helped me out of it.

 

[Klenchblaize]

I think you've missed the point.
No one would dare suggest that someone with a clinical mental health condition can find it solved by being alone (who said anything about being alone?) in the woods.
But someone going through a mild case of anxiety or depression may find that being in a 'green space' (it needn't be the woods, for example - could be the coast, could be a garden, out on the hills, etc) offers a needed respite that may allow them to look at their issue from a different angle. Or maybe just give them a couple of hours off from their worries whilst that concentrate on the world outside them rather than the world inside them.
No, being outside will not on its own alleviate paranoia, schizo-affected disorders, or any other acute mental health condition. But it may help with the associated feelings of depression etc.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to these things and what works for one person may not necessarily work for another.
If you are under your GP for mild symptoms then you may have heard phrases such as 'social prescription' - the idea that meaningful activity can be every much a part of the recovery process as bunging another pill down your throat.
And these kinds of green activities fall into that category.
But you are absolutely right that green therapy can only work as part of a planned therapeutic recovery, and in more severe cases that would be the case.

It’s the people who have not been formally diagnosed with a clinical mental health issue I was alluding to. Those who go under the radar. Something we should not be surprised at given a;- the lack of investment in this area of the NHS and b;- the stigma that persists throughout society.

Of course I accept the health benefits of time spent in the woods; I’m never more happy and fulfilled than when in the great outdoors hunting with a rifle, it’s just I have a concern that for certain people, who find themselves in a “bad place” with no support, running to the woods as the only form of relief can become an obsession and hasten total withdrawal with an allied fear of people increasing commensurately.

Put another way I’m simply offering an alternative take on the proposition.

K

 

[Wander]

That's a fair point.
Regretfully, if undiagnosed, there's not a lot that can be done about it or analysed.
But you are right - it could become a crutch, like drink or drugs, and doesn't help so much as become an addiction.
I can think of a very famous case in America where this happened. It was written about in the (very good) book 'Stranger In The Woods'. In summary, a young man turned his back on society and just disappeared. He was found many years later (20 or 30 or something like that) living in the woods. He received a subsequent medical diagnosis (can't recall off the top of my head, but aspergers or autism or something similar) that no one had suspected before. Poor chap had an incredibly hard time when he was found and returned to his family. I recall he referred to 'the lady of the woods' and how he wanted to return to her - it was wondered if this 'return' was a euphemism for suicide. He couldn't adjust and being in the woods had become his addiction and fix he needed to a self-destructive degree.
So you are right in your concern.
The answer, I suspect, is not to downplay the therapeutic benefits of 'green time' but rather to improve identification and diagnosis of those undiagnosed.
Yes, we all know that's not likely, especially under a government that's determined to run public healthcare into the ground for it's own agenda.
But that seems like a more laudable and desirable outcome and what we should strive for.

 

[Bearmont]

Tree pheromones have great healing properties on humans that inhale them. Whether it's being out in nature that is healthy or sitting in concrete coffins that is detrimental - who knows.

I don't doubt that some mental health issues do benefit from the literal "grounding" that nature provides, as we have an affinity towards the things we occupy ourselves with a lot of the time. Someone who's prone to hearing voices will be worse off in a very cerebral and introspective environment like a monastery, I would dare say.

For those with burnout or depression it's more that nature time is symptom management, as a lifestyle change towards more natural surroundings, healthy social relationships and meaningful work is really what will do the trick.

The whole diagnosis argument is tricky, as those who are the most well-adjusted to modern insanity are not necessarily the most sound of mind. They might just be able to cope well.

 

[sidpost]

Someone who's prone to hearing voices will be worse off in a very cerebral and introspective environment like a monastery, I would dare say.

As someone away from home in Europe over Christmas one year, I spent the holiday period in a monastery with total silence except for church services with sermons, singing, and some chants.

Definitely not something I would recommend for someone with mental health issues.

I was there for spiritual reasons and a retrospective assessment of my overall religious life. This made the social isolation a strong factor in the overall positive experience I had and allowed me to really focus on the religious quest I was on. The net effect was substantially more profound than I expected and drew me significantly closer to God in all aspects of my life after this experience. It also drew me strongly toward European Catholicism which was a surprise because my experience with American Catholicism was not good overall (and totally unrelated to the sex scandals). Prior to this, I was solidly and firmly in the Protestant community but, today I live my life pretty close to the European Catholic standard.

When I'm stressed, sitting next to a babbling brook is awesome for me and my spirit. Sitting and walking amongst nice trees is pretty close to that as well. If I can, a few nights with a tarp and sleeping bag is awesome for my overall outlook on life.

 

[R_Fonseca]

This is so interesting.

I've noticed this for myself over the last 15 years or so. I need to be outside to reset. It's like a mental reset. I work at a computer and if I'm not able to go out... Normally course fishing, I can feel the depression set in. My sleep gets worse and I become more anxious.

As soon as I go out again, even for a day, it's like my battery recharges and I can deal with life again for a while.

I'm not always able to find that balance, but realize it's my only medicine.

 

[bearbait]

The whole diagnosis argument is tricky, as those who are the most well-adjusted to modern insanity are not necessarily the most sound of mind. They might just be able to cope well.

Indeed!

"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." [Philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti.]

 

[Tony]

Thanks for all the comments in this thread it's a great thread

 

[Billy-o]

- oops wrong thread

 

[jeggs]

@Wander, that would be great!

On a related note, I have a nephew that never really adjusted to a moving to house in the country. He grew up in 'high density housing' in lower middle income apartment complexes so, noise, hustle and bustle, light pollution, etc. where normal to him and where he felt most comfortable.

This brings up the question whether this is genetic or a 'learned behavior'. Anecdotal evidence of a really small sample size but, something I think about occasionally.

These kinds of trends seem to be more common in Japan and Korea based on what I have read and seen on TV so, some social groups seem to be evolving away from nature while, people like we see on this forum are drawn to nature.

I noted in japan they have a long history of using nature as a balm to the pressures of life;
shinrin-yoku or 'forest bathing'
As mentioned in quoted reply so does S.Korea, furthermore it's common in Finland too.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinrin-yoku
I have suffered from addiction and mental health/depression issues, and find that being outside brings my great joy and inner balance. Without my 'forest bathing' I find myself sinking into the malaise of mental torment and dark depression. Tbh I don't think I would be here now if I hadn't found my own way to commune with nature. Bushcraft certainly helps me to keep ' sane' .