Happy New Year to you all trust you had a lovely festive holiday and managed to get outside and connect with nature.

Our next North East Place and Wellbeing Network is on Thursday 13th March 2-3pm via MS Teams. Please add this to your own calendar and take a note of the teams link here to access the meeting.

At our November Network meeting we had Sarah Eggleton, Community Engagement Officer from The National Trust for Scotland share with us. Sarah’s presentation slides have been uploaded to the dedicated Place and Wellbeing webpage on the Grampian Plan for the Future site. Link to the page can be found here.

We have a couple of guests sharing about Forest Bathing for those who are interested to join us.

Danielle Quist is a certified Forest Bathing and Natural Mindfulness Guide. She is also an ecotherapist who practises nature-connected counselling and humanistic therapy locally in private practice, and in High schools in Moray and the Highlands.

Is Forest Bathing just another wellness trend?

The research that keeps coming suggests strongly that it is here to stay! Danielle will share about what Forest Bathing is, ironing out any potential misconceptions, and about the many, many benefits that can be had taking part in this wonderful, restful practice. There are so many beautiful ways to connect to nature, Forest Bathing takes its place as one that can be profound in its change of the spirit as well as improvements in physical and psychological wellbeing. www.dquisttherapy.com

Danielle will be joined with Hugh Asher another expert in the field of Forest Bathing and Nature Therapy. Hugh has written several articles and published books about his work. If you want to find out more about Hugh’s work please check out this website –

 www.silvotherapy.co.uk

In our second part of the meeting we will have Kay Cumming and Pam Nwelih from The Seed Box. The Seed Box Wellbeing project ran throughout 2024 within the historic walled garden in Glen Tanar Estate.

The project was run by Kay Cumming and Pam Nwelih and comprised of a 12 week and 6 week programme.  

Outreach wellbeing sessions were also run for The Forget Me Not charity, a local group for adults suffering from dementia.

The project aimed to support individuals' health and wellbeing utilising a holistic approach to facilitate connecting with others, reducing social anxiety, improving confidence, low mood and self-esteem. 

Participants had the opportunity to participate in horticulture and nature based activities as well as meditation and crafting.

The presentation will demonstrate the journey of the project including feedback from participants and future plans. www.theseedbox.org.uk

                                      Noticeboard of other Activities to be shared with the North East Place & Wellbeing Network:

Upcoming Events – If you have any up-coming events and would like to put out across the North East Place and Wellbeing Network, please contact alison.hannan2@nhs.scot and we can add to the Noticeboard on the NHS Grampian Plan for the Future webpage, as well as posting out to the network members.

Event Details - January 15th 2025 - NASP Webinar - Learning from Phase One of the National Cross Goverment programme: Preventing and Tackling Mental ill-health through Green Social Prescibing

Event Details - January 21st - 2025 - NASP Webinar - Community-led Social Prescribing - Lessons from Big Local and Beyond

For more information and access to the above webinars please follow link: NASP Events

Event Details - 21^st January 2025 6-8pm, at Holyrood Room, Scottish Parliament.

Healing Arts Scotland Impact Event following the Healing Arts Scotland 2024 report and evaluation findings.Guest Speakers include:

Sir Gregor Smith, Chief Medical Officer for Scotland, Angela Foster, Chair Public Health Scotland, Christopher Baily, Arts & Health Lead, WHO & Jamel Arts & Health Lab Co-Director. Further information: engagement@scottishballet.co.uk

Event Details - 30^th January 2025 10-12noon on-line event – Green Health Learning Network, to register please email: PHS.healthyenvironments@phs.scot

Event Details - RSPB – Wintering Wild & Well Webinars to book please email Dawn James at nesevents@rspb.org.uk

Published Articles or Websites of Interest –

Sally Thomson Director of Grampian Hospital Arts Trust forwarded to me a recent article on ‘Culture and Heritage Capital: Monetising the impact of culture and heritage on health and wellbeing’  Link to the document can be found here.