National Nature Reserves and health
There are 222 National Nature Reserves (NNRs) in England, comprising many of the country's finest wildlife and geological sites. As well as protecting their natural features, NNRs are places where people can get involved with nature conservation. There are a number of projects across our NNRs that have a particular health focus, such as our partnership with Phoenix Futures.
The Phoenix Futures programme
The Phoenix Futures Conservation Therapy Programme has been operating as a partnership with Natural England or its founding bodies since 2001. The programme contributes to the therapeutic rehabilitation of individuals with substance misuse problems through their active involvement in conservation projects on National Nature Reserves.
Every week, groups of clients from three of Phoenix Futures' residential care units travel to nearby NNRs to undertake a variety of work to a near-professional standard. This work can include habitat management, boundary construction and footpath repairs.
The clients are supervised by professionals who can offer both the practical expertise and the social skills necessary. After ten weeks on the programme, and subject to their completing risk assessments, task reports and learning logs, clients are presented with a certificate.
Measures of success
Successes of this sort of project are difficult to measure, but one measurable element is the percentage change of drug users recorded as being in effective treatment, where treatment is defined as being effective when clients stay in it for 12 weeks or more.
'Early retention' is easy to measure, and Phoenix Futures' results look good. From mid-2007 to mid-2008, 73 per cent of Conservation Therapy Programme attendees stayed in treatment for 12 weeks or more, compared to 49 per cent of non-participants.
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