‘Social crofting’ and ‘Green health’ – A Guest Article for Green Health Week 2022 by Hugh Asher from Darach Social Croft
Modern life can have a significant impact on our mental and physical wellbeing, and the last few years having been particularly difficult for many people. What has also become much clearer during this time is that Green Health activities, especially those that increase your connection with nature, can help to counteract this and can lead to significant increases in your wellbeing.
Darach Social Croft
With my wife Sarah, I run Darach Social Croft, located near Strontian in West Lochaber, an area that promotes itself as ‘The Outdoor Capital of the UK’. A social croft, like a care farm, is a working croft that offers activities to visitors aimed at providing social inclusion or improving social, psychological and emotional functioning. It is often defined as the therapeutic use of farming or crofting practices and is a hands-on approach that combines being in nature, being part of a social group and taking part in meaningful croft-based horticultural and agricultural activities. Working with the animals and the natural environment are key to the activities that we provide, and we take an holistic, hands on approach to helping people to achieve their chosen goals through our unique approach that combines care farming, nature-based craft activities and a range of eco-therapies and green exercise such as Forest Bathing. We often start each session with a short bit of nature-mindfulness to help to relax people.
Engaging men into activities designed to improve mental health and wellbeing has traditionally proved more difficult than with women. Social crofts and care farms may offer a better cultural fit for men, as they usually have a ‘leave your diagnosis at the gate’ approach where the primary focus and approach is not explicitly on mental health and wellbeing – it is on ‘doing things’ rather than ‘therapeutic support’. Social crofts provide a non-judgmental environment where people are free to talk about their problems or not. They are therefore a useful resource for people who are less likely to engage with traditional mental health and wellbeing services as they invite people to get outside and take part in sociable activities and to become more active, rather than join a group with a more clinical mental health and well-being focus.
Working with Animals
As anyone who has felt the benefits of stroking a dog or cat or working with farm animals will know, comparatively unstructured activities such as grooming and feeding can be highly rewarding. Simply stroking an animal can increases the neurotransmitter oxytocin which promotes feelings of bonding, decrease the level of the stress hormone cortisol and boosts release of the neurotransmitter serotonin, resulting in lowered blood pressure and heart rate and for many people, in elevated mood. This is not a new concept, with animals having been used in the Quaker-run York Retreat, opened by William Tuke in 1796, who believed in the importance of nature for healing. This was an early example of focusing on rehabilitation of people with mental health issues, rather than sending them to asylums.
For many people, working with animals can provide a wide range of unique benefits, including:
- The opportunity to have close physical contact with another living creature
- Domestication has made farm animals dependent on us and working with them can be very rewarding
- Relationship building without the inherent complications present with human-to-human interaction
- The opportunity to provide care for another living creature, instead of receiving it
- Feeling needed and that they are doing responsible and socially valuable work
- Increased confidence and self-esteem through learning how to provide such care
- The animals can also provide a focus outside the person, but allow them the space to talk to others about their experiences in a side-by-side space
Social Crofting and the Five Ways to Wellbeing
The Five Ways to Wellbeing are evidence-based steps that everyone can take to improve mental and emotional health and wellbeing. Social crofting activities and other Green Health activities can offer an easy and practical way to put these into practice.
Be More Active
Regular physical activity is associated with lower rates of depression and anxiety, is essential for slowing age-related cognitive decline and for promoting both physical and mental well-being. Green Health approaches are often beneficial to both physical and mental health.
Social crofting provides both mental stimulation and physical exercise in the open air, in a way that often appeals to people who are reluctant to increase their activity levels or engage in physical activities in more mainstream ways – it gets them moving in an enjoyable way. It isn’t promoted as a physical activity, but allows people to gradually build their activity levels at a pace and in a direction that suits them. Many people find that by engaging in physical activities that they enjoy, they developed increased energy generally and feel more able to tackle things they previously felt unable to. In this way they may become more aware of the wider benefits of being more active.
Connect With Others
There is strong evidence that indicates that social interaction, feeling close to, and valued by other people is a fundamental human need and one that contributes to wellbeing and acts as a buffer against mental ill health.
Social crofting reduces social isolation and increases social inclusion. Participants can meet new people in a non-threatening environment, improve social and relationship-building skills and develop a better understanding of others. It allows people to interact with others at a pace and in a way that suits them. There are numerous croft-based activities that are undertaken as part of a team, as well as things that people can do alone. Participants are therefore able to choose the level of social interaction that best suits them on that day. There are also benefits to giving support to and getting support from other people with similar experiences. In this way social crofting can increase participants social network and improve their social capital.
Take Notice of the World
Participating in social crofting makes people more aware of the natural world and their wider environment. They become more aware of the changing seasons and the effects this has on the landscape, crop growth and the animals. It can also give people something to look forward to, give them a reason to go outside and help develop a routine.
Learning to practice mindfulness on the croft can have very beneficial effects. Being ‘in the moment’ and focusing on the task in hand and what is going on around them, rather than thoughts and concerns relating to things that happened before they arrived at the croft, or things that will happen afterwards can greatly reduce stress and anxiety.
Keep Learning
Through learning new skills, participants gain a sense of accomplishment and achievement; seeing and recognising the benefits to the working farm of what they undertake helps them to feel valued and useful; and they may learn to take responsibility for things at a level they had never previously done. Some care farms can help people to achieve qualifications or get their learning formally recognised in other ways.
Give to Others
Social crofting enables to people to work as part of a team, to support other participants and sometimes undertake tasks of benefit to the local or wider community.
Giving to others and co-operating with them can stimulate the reward areas in the brain, creating positive feelings. Helping and working with others can also give us a sense of purpose and feelings of self-worth. It can make us feel happier and more satisfied with life. Giving our time to others in a constructive way helps us strengthen our relationships and build new ones, and relationships with others can also help mental wellbeing (see the second of the five Ways to Wellbeing discussed above).
Written by Hugh Asher
Darach Social Croft and An Darach Forest Therapy.
For further details please visit the Darach Croft website, Silvo Therapy website or email hugh@socialcroft.co.uk