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Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP) and Scottish Alcohol Research Network (SARN) warmly invite you to join us online on Tuesday 15 June from 12:30-14:00 BST for our sixth and final SHAAP/SARN Alcohol Occasionals event of 2021.

Wendy Masterton (University of Stirling) will present her research on greenspace programmes for problem substance use and mental health and we will then open to Q+A and wider discussion.

Wendy is currently in her final year of her ESRC/SGSSS Interdisciplinary-funded PhD and is based in the Salvation Army Centre for Addiction Services and Research (SACASR) at the University of Stirling. She is undertaking a realist evaluation of greenspace programmes for improving mental health and supporting people with problem drug and alcohol use. Her research interests are in realist methods, substance use, harm reduction, mental health, and the health benefits of greenspace and greenspace interventions.

The webinar will be hosted online using the Zoom platform, and registrants will receive a link to join.

Alcohol Occasionals are free to attend and open to all, and our audience is diverse, including academics/researchers, healthcare professionals, policy-makers and members of the public.

Register for free now!

The health benefits of greenspace are widely accepted, and time spent in greenspace has been strongly linked to improved mental health. Further, greenspace availability has been linked to reduced health inequalities. In this seminar, Wendy Masterton from the University of Stirling, will discuss the evidence for greenspace in reducing inequalities, with a focus on how this might be relevant for people with problem alcohol use. Wendy will then draw on her PhD research and explore how greenspace programmes could support people with problem alcohol use. Wendy will discuss how, while this is a growing area of research, there is still limited understanding of the key components that make greenspace programmes successful. This makes it difficult to develop and implement new programmes and evaluate them successfully. Wendy will discuss her research in developing a framework to address this gap but will also discuss how greenspace programmes do not work for everybody equally, and how there are key contextual issues that may limit the effectiveness of programmes, particularly for marginalised groups who may benefit most. Despite this, the seminar will provide detail on how, with rising costs of treatment and rising levels of mental health problems, greenspace programmes could be a feasible addition to holistic care.