feeling good about where you live aideen silke 17 march 2010 south east london housing partnership
TRANSCRIPT
Feeling Good About Where You Live
Aideen Silke17 March 2010South East London Housing Partnership
Health and Wellbeing Board
Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy Group
Improving Health Cutting Inequalities Partnership
Health, Wellbeing and builtenvironment sub-group
Healthy Urban PlanningFramework
Active EnvironmentsEstates InterventionMajor estatesregeneration
Health, Wellbeing and Built Environment Structures
Why does feeling good about where you live matter?
• The environment can exert an influence at the individual, household, community or area level
• Not feeling good about where you live is associated with significantly poor mental health
• Having poor mental health is linked to poor physical health
• Poor mental health is one of the top 3 causes of poor quality of life in Greenwich
• Having poor mental health is a significant cause of health inequalities in Greenwich
Aims
• to pilot an integrated approach to delivering low cost physical and social interventions on an estate to improve mental health and wellbeing and to reduce the incidence of depression bought on through living conditions.
• To tackle loneliness and isolation on the estate to build an enhanced sense of community and engagement
• to provide causal evidence describing the relationships between physical and social aspects of residential environments and psychological well-being.
Initial research
• One of the first UK studies to date• Postal survey to 1,600 households in 9 areas in
Greenwich • Response rate 38%• Asked questions about the environment and about
people’s mental health• Identified the factors that influence mental wellbeing• Highlighted need to intervene on both design and
social features of residential areas to promote psychological health
Identified 13 Intervention factorsBeing dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with any of these factors
meant 200% to 300% more likely to be in the lowest group for mental health*
• Damp• Liking the look of the place• Noise -street, neighbours & home• Feeling overcrowded in the home • Access to green spaces• Feeling afraid to go out in the day and at night• Needles and syringes left lying around• Places to stop and chat• Events to get people together• Community facilities• Transport and accessibility* After adjusting for income, age, sex etc
“If your home environment is damp, cold, noisy and falling apart then there's not one place you feel safe and relaxed, it makes you feel miserable, depressed and trapped”
Fear of crime and harassment –especially in the day time
Cars dominate and take over pavements- nowhere to stop and chat
Well I would sit there for a while…
The research question:which relationships are causal?
Case-control study• Three year study
• Two estates in Greenwich
• Selected to be similar on – Architectural features eg age, mix of dwellings– Decent Homes Status– Level of council tenancy– Ranking on the index of multiple deprivation– Other socioeconomic factors
• One estate receives environmental improvements, the other does not
• It is envisaged that the ‘control’ estate will receive interventions on completion of the follow up period
Current position
• Baseline survey has been completed on two estates - 810 responses (from 1500 households)
• Launch event held on 12 September in Abbey Wood• Delivery partnerships with NHS Greenwich, Metropolitan Police,
Greenwich Council, local schools established• Ongoing programme of engagement activities and continuing to
recruit residents to work with the project over the next 15 months
• Developing a sustainability strategy and ensuring activities are replicable elsewhere
• Strong steering group chaired by a Cabinet Member ensuring senior ownership and buy in
Six themes
Interventions
• Based on the 13 factors that influence mental wellbeing
• Aiming to make places more liveable• Based on an estate engagement and problem solving
model• On going programme of community engagement and
consultation• Delivered through innovative uses of existing
resources and existing mechanisms• Replicable and low cost
Delivery Model
FGAWYL Steering Group[Cabinet Member, Health, Adults and Older People]
ResearchGroup
Community Empowerment
[Community participation]
Residents Group
Chair: Flowers Estate Resident [GC Resident liaison]
Environmental Change
[Community Safety]
Individual level change[Tenancy]
FGAWYL Delivery Structure
Ongoing activities
• Estate Gardening• Sports classes in conjunction with the primary school• Painting of communal areas• Repairs audit of activities• NHS Health Training Programme• Ranger led walks programme• Overt CCTV on main road• Cookery Clubs• Targeted work with households concerned by damp or noise• Crime prevention work• Graffiti cleaning demonstration at local school• Community event
Anti graffiti work with
local primary school
A few photos
What do we hope will come out of this?• to improve mental health and wellbeing • to reduce the incidence of depression bought on
through living conditions. • Understand what makes a difference to mental
wellbeing of Greenwich residents• That learning from this project will help inform future
engagement with residents and delivery of services in Greenwich
• To add to international research evidence
For further information:
Contact:
Aideen SilkeProject Co-ordinatorNHS Greenwich/Greenwich Council [email protected] 8921 6752