Talk 4: Access to learning and nature – addressing health inequalities. Ageing Well Public Talks Series 2024/25

Join us for a session on community and nature, part of the Ageing Well Public Talks series 2024/2025

Yoseph will be talking about creating an intergenerational community of nature enthusiasts, operating both virtually and in person. He will look at community walking group experience, access and learning, and using nature storytelling. Sonal will consider how inequalities in access to and experience of green spaces can affect the benefits different sections of society gain from engaging with nature, including health and wellbeing outcomes. Together, they will explore how we can try to overcome these differences.

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The speakers

Dr Yoseph Araya is a Senior Lecturer in Ecology & Environmental Sciences within the Ecosystems and Biodiversity Research discipline at The Open University.

Ms Sonal Mehta - Director/Founder Catalyst Health Solutions & VCSE Partnership Lead – Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care Board. Sonal is a pharmacist by background and has worked across diverse areas in the health system. Through her involvement, Sonal supports collaborative action to reduce health inequalities while also creating strategic partnerships between the voluntary, community, and social enterprise sectors and the health and care system.

About the series

In the 'Ageing Well Public Talk series' we are exploring how important it is, over our lifespan, to maintain well-balanced nutrition and hydration as well as regular physical and social activity in older age, also known as the 'Five Pillars of Ageing Well'. Ageing demonstrates most significantly when we reach a certain age, the usual benchmark being 65+, but ageing starts much sooner and the way ageing demonstrates when we are over 65 depends on decisions we have been making over our life span.

The series and related materials such as ‘The Five Pillars of Ageing Well’ became the cornerstones of further engagement with the public, specifically around COVID-19 and the relating self-isolation, which are now available on the OU website and the Internet.

The overall aim of these series of interventions is to facilitate a step change in user behaviour and support service provision. Self-management and becoming partner in our own health care is an important aspect of these talks. This may have a wider impact in healthcare economies, as ageing and related co-morbidities have a substantial health and economic burden footprint.

AWPTS is a highly adaptable tool for addressing also the needs of diverse groups requiring tailored interventions, for instance, heart failure and diabetes, where prevention and sustained self-management are crucial for improving quality of life. Since 2019, over 25,000 members of the public have engaged with the talks nationally, and the AWPTS portfolio of resources has engaged over 90,000 people globally; our regular feedback confirms that this intervention has increased knowledge of age-related processes, attitudes to health and wellbeing, confidence in self-management and lifestyle choices for healthy ageing among the public as well as practitioners, professionals, and clinicians who support ageing populations in their professional roles.

This event will be held on Zoom. The organiser will contact you with instructions on how to access the event.

For more information about the event or if you have any queries, please email WELS Research Events

All talks last between 60-90 min.