We’re proud to announce several Greenbelt team members are now qualified, certified ‘mental health first aiders’, following a recent training course.

Earlier this week, Donald Ferguson - Greenbelt’s Services Manager - and Kara Robinson - Office and HR Administrator - completed four sessions of detailed online training, delivered by the charity Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) England, over the course of two days.

“MHFA England is a social enterprise with a vision to improve the mental health of the nation,” the certificates read.

“This course teaches the knowledge and skills for providing first aid to support people who may be experiencing poor mental health.

“Through our training, campaigning and reinvesting, we equip people with the skills to support their own and others’ wellbeing.”

Did you know: mental health charity Mind, founded in 1946, estimates around 1 in 4 people in England are affected directly or indirectly by mental health issues - that’s around 14.2 million people in England alone!

Comprising around 14 hours of diverse online training - including guided seminars, group discussion and both written and practical exercises - this new certification better enables us to be mindful, supportive and every bit as committed to building healthy, thriving office environments as we are to open space environments.

“It’s currently law that you must have a physical first-aider, but there is currently no equivalent requirement to have a mental health first-aider or procedures in place for addressing stress, anxiety or depression,” Kara explained.

“The training was very varied: one exercise involved picturing a “stress container”, allowing us to visualise not only how stressful situations affect different people in different ways in the moment - but also how that pressure can build up in different ways and at different rates over the long-term, depending on the individual.”

“The sessions were valuable and informative. [Associate Instructor] Bianca Jones did a great job,” said Donald.

“Alongside the four ISO accreditations we attained in 2022, and the Bupa Healthy Minds scheme which Greenbelt recently signed up to, this MHFA training will help support our teams and adds another tool for looking after the welfare and wellbeing of staff.”

The new certification comes at a particularly opportune moment - with a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Psychiatry this week describing a direct link between long-term exposure to air pollution, and feelings of depression or anxiety.

The project - an 11-year study, carried out by researchers from the universities of Oxford, Beijing and Imperial College London - monitored nearly 400,000 UK adults and found those living in areas with higher pollution were more likely to suffer from episodes of poor mental health - even when air quality was still within official governmental tolerance limits.

This makes the new study a first, as previous research in this area focused only on areas in which air pollution already exceeded UK limits. 

Likewise, a separate report in 2022 from the Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollution concluded a direct and “likely causal” relationship between air pollution levels and cognitive decline or dementia.

“Previous research has shown a direct interrelationship between our physical health, mental health and access to good-quality green and naturalistic spaces,” said Donald.

“How we interact with and move through our green spaces has been at the forefront of landscape design in recent years, and the importance of Biodiversity Net Gain legislation will have a profound impact on how we perceive the natural environment on our doorstep.

“I would be hopeful that the improvement of habitats and green spaces on new developments will have additional benefits associated with positive mental health.

“The presence and level of pollution in our communities is something we already account for, and several of our key components and features - including Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SuDS) and woodland ‘buffer strips’ - are specifically designed, managed and maintained to mitigate air, water and noise pollution without negatively impacting the aesthetic appeal of the landscape.”