Nature-based interventions in social work practice and education: Insights from six nations

Abstract

This paper presents findings from an investigation of nature-based practices, from the perspectives of 10 academics/educators from six nations. Participants engaged in a focus group exploring the prevalence and inclusion of nature in social work practice and education. While the study focused on individual members’ experiences and perspectives, the findings highlight important context-specific factors for including nature within social work to reconnect humans with nature for health, well-being, healing, and justice. An Integrative Environmental Model for social work is proposed to assist future practice and education.

Nature as a Wellbeing Predictor: Perceptions and Guidelines to Enhance Ecosocial Intervention with Older People

“…As Heinsch pointed out, the importance of the physical environment/non-human nature to well-being has been under-researched and underutilized by social work. Over the years, the notion of environment in this field of knowledge focused only a social dimension, in which the individual(s) was/were inserted, namely aspects related to housing, finances, access to services, geographical location, health services, and cultural traditions [15], excluding the physical/natural environment [15][16][17]. However, it was with the influence of systemic thinking in social work and with the global visibility of the environmental problems/environmental crisis inherited from modern societies (1970s onwards) that the person-in-environment approach acquired renewed centrality [17], coming to encompass, taking into account the impacts of climate change, the physical/natural environment rather than focusing predominantly on its socio-cultural, economic, and/or political environments, which was the case in its more traditional form [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24].…”