In our climate and health episode of Equally Valued, we heard from people across academia, the NHS and community groups here in Scotland about the importance of addressing climate change to improve people’s health and wellbeing, responsibility across sectors in Scotland, and the funding challenges facing voluntary initiatives.

In this podcast episode ‘Exploring the intersection between climate and health in Scotland’ contributors from across the health and care sector shared different ways personal environment affects wellbeing and how healthcare services, community gardens, bike projects and local infrastructure support positive climate action to improve outcomes for all.

Sara Maclean, the operations manager for Argyll and Bute-based third sector organisation, ACT which provides wellbeing services with an environmental focus, says such third sector groups play a vital role in supporting local climate and health developments:

“I think it's important that the third sector is really brought up a level and made a much more robust, resilient, and recognised service-delivery model. Because I think the key to climate change, whether it's for the NHS, or any of us, across the board is making things locally relevant.”

Part of ACT’s work is delivering carbon literacy training within the community to support people’s understanding and engagement with the climate crisis. Ms Maclean adds that reaching net zero in Scotland is all about collaborative work, from individuals to organisations and the government.

Dr Shauna Golden, NHS Lothian’s first ever environmental sustainability education fellow, agrees there is a need for responsibility to do the work at all levels.

Dr Golden says that the NHS – as one of Scotland’s biggest employers – has a leadership role in the community not only in education but also to actively minimise the healthcare system’s carbon footprint.

Some examples can be found in the changing face of pharmacy to assess medicines’ environmental impact, lower waste and provide personalised care to Scots as part of a Realistic Medicine approach.

Dr Golden adds that while impacts from the climate emergency are experienced at both a global and local level, often those who have contributed least to the growing crisis are feeling the worst effects with higher rates of respiratory disease related to air pollution being linked to poverty, for example.

She says the climate crisis affects different communities beyond specific diseases too:

“It has broader implications for what we call the social determinants of disease too. So, we can think of these as the things that people need to live a good life and we know these have huge implications for health of our community.”

 

Connecting communities

Philip Revell is the Convener for Scottish Communities Climate Action Network (SCCAN). Its 350 members work within their communities to support people facing the climate emergency, sharing knowledge and best practice.

While its scope spans beyond the climate and health space, Mr Revell explains that communities play a key role in supporting local resilience:

“Inevitably, we're going to face a whole lot of interconnected shocks in the next 10-20 years, as the current economic model sort of becomes less and less fit for purpose and extreme weather events start kicking in and as people experience general climate, anxiety, and so on.

“The climate crisis is also going to be a public health crisis and we’ve got to be prepared for that. We really need to be thinking about how we can support the development of community resilience so communities can ensure people’s wellbeing is looked after.”

Mr Revell shares some of the “huge range” of inspiring initiatives and actions he sees across communities in Scotland to tackle this challenging picture.

The provision of a community garden in the grounds of a local NHS hospital in Dunbar is one example, which he explains creates space for patients and visitors; supporting both local wellbeing and mental health and providing a space where food can be grown for local needs.

Mental Wellbeing

Professor Stephen Peake, Climate Professor for Scotland's Open University, adds that other local infrastructure like the esplanade in Oban where he lives offers communities protection from some of the impacts of climate change. Like green spaces, he explains that this can also improve mental health - and as a space for active travel which contributes to physical wellbeing:

“A great many people really obviously rely on this esplanade, for their mental and physical health – it dawned on me that this was an absolutely key piece of infrastructure to keep ourselves mentally and physically together. That was in lockdown but it's also true when we're not in lockdown.

“Of course, then if keeping ourselves healthy physically and mentally is important – which it is – it's not just for health, but actually it's important for climate change.

“This esplanade is a flood defence: in a southerly storm, the seas bashing, seaweed comes onto the roads as it rocks, it prevents the hotels and roads from getting damaged.”

He continues that he sees infrastructure like this as part of the NHS in Scotland – in the sense of social prescribing for communities, providing safe, accessible spaces for exercise.

Professor Peake says, if we are to achieve a near net zero NHS Scotland, many more people who are able to will need to spend more time doing metabolic activities like walking and cycling:

“Not in their electric cars, not in their petrol cars, people will be out and about and this esplanade might have to be doubled and expanded, it’s going to be thronging. And so, yes – pieces of infrastructure like this must be imagined as part of a sophisticated, mature, integrated NHS.”

With compounded inequalities and worries impacting people’s mental health in communities, such as food insecurity and the cost-of-living crisis, Sara Maclean adds that it is essential to acknowledge that is really hard for many people to think about climate change.

She says some of ACT’s climate change projects span across food, travel, and health, to engage people and make climate change locally relevant:

“Mental health is affected by worries about bills, food and things like that. Physical and mental wellbeing are very much affected by the problems by the problems around lack of food, sustainability – good quality and sustainable food costs more. There’s a real mismatch between living cheaply and affordably and living well.”

One ACT group in Lochgilphead refurbish bikes from landfills to give to people who may not otherwise have access to them, and oversee cycle skills training to support affordable active travel while lowering emissions – one effort by ACT to address entrenched disparities.

Local funding

Mr Revell explains that the Scottish Communities Climate Action Network links local groups with policymakers, to discuss barriers facing grass roots action. One key challenge facing community groups and third sector organisations is sustainable funding for their projects.

Sara Maclean from ACT says integrating the third sector in service delivery would help, but they need better support:

“There’s that age-old problem of funding the third sector to deliver services, the short-term nature of funding has always been a challenge.

“It’s really hard to get continuance funding for something [a community project] that's proven to work without somehow showing the development or making it different for new funding.”

Ms Maclean calls for more long-term and core funding options to allow organisations like ACT to continue delivering services in communities that they know are effective. Mr Revell agrees this is essential:

“Communities need more access to resources, basically. This is fundamental issue we face – both in terms of long-term funding and access to land and supportive local infrastructure.”

For more on NHS Scotland’s health and climate crises impacts, ongoing work and the role of a sustainability education fellow, we have a profile article on Dr Golden.

You can listen to the full podcast on Spotify or Anchor FM.

Read more: Glasgow: Working together for a healthy city; Blue-green prescribing for climate and public health; A question of action; Realistic medicine to help the climate; Disposable gloves to protect patients and the planet; Air pollution exposure linked to early death 

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