Assessing the relevance of parks in a multi-sectoral park-health programme

ABSTRACT

Rationale/purpose:

Multi-sectoral partnerships have become a common strategy for addressing persistent public health issues, such as physical inactivity, mental health disorders and chronic illnesses. Yet, little is known about the role of the park and recreation sector to such health sector initiatives. The purpose of our study was to analyse the flow of information across a multi-sectoral mental health group hiking programme in Canada.

Design/methodology/approach:

We used an online questionnaire to survey social service agency staff involved in delivering the programme in 63 communities. We collected data about their information seeking practices regarding four types of information: hiking and parks, mental health, funding sources, and the Mood Walks programme.

Findings:

Social network analysis confirmed that social service agencies turned to park and recreation sector partners for information about hiking and local hiking amenities but did not seek information from them about mental health, funding sources, or the programme itself.

Practical implications:

Park and recreation sector partners are viewed by other sectoral partners as sources of critical information in the delivery of this park-based health initiative.

Research contribution:

This study illustrates the utility of social network analysis in understanding multi-sectoral park-based health programmes and confirms the relevance of the park and recreation sector to public health initiatives in nature settings.

KEYWORDS:

• Parks
• mental health
• multi-sectoral partnerships
• social network analysis

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Jim Harris and Bojana Milanovic from the Canadian Mental Health Association, Ontario, for their assistance with this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).