Professor Stephen Page - Evidence base for inclusivity in nature-based experiences: ENLIVEN findings

[Music] I'm going to really just be talking about some of the evidence that we have collected to really put the K sport Demetri inclusivity using nature and here's a couple of uh I think lovely pictures from from the project it gives you a flavor of the mot the Tower of London one project the birds of prey centor and there's another one um which you'll hear a little bit more about in one of the presentations to come so what am I going to talk to you about really I'm going to sort of talk about t

he research process we've put together to get to the point where we are today and talk about some of the headlines I'm not going to go into all the the nitty-gritty academic Stu I really want to give you a sort of a flavor of what we've done to really answer this question what's this relationship between nature demena and the physical economy nature and demena is not something new that urges and in fact you can go right back to the Victorian period with the building of hospitals the Syms where n

ature was built into the process so it's I think something we started to realize that if you can help the bisit economy organizations to innovate then I think there a win-win situation what sort of research did we do well to to look at this relationship we've we've looked at a whole range of techniques and and those techniques sort of stand the obvious which Linder talks about the literature surching interviewing people focus groups but I think the KE Point here is all of this research is underp

inned by co-creation so so we're using the research to inform what we were doing as we were going along and not just an academic process to publish it the end of it it's a very applied process as well as some participant observation we've got people from The Advisory Group here as well which had a key role in that uh code creation proc hope that you'll hear a bit more about that with the projects this afternoon uh particularly the Strawberry Hill one where the ACT co-creation was really live wit

h the creation of the Sens we trade and we had a knowledge exchange for which talked about how to develop these projects I think the key here is not to come in with the gender of what you want to do but that businesses innovate and help to steer them and to push the projects Al love and I think that's really one of the successes of of the enen project and this whole process of co-creation was about bringing together these three groups of pink or living EV stakehold with some the businesses and t

hen forming that with research of policy so it's trying to also I think bring in some of the adoc youy as well that that is out there to put forward what needs done tried to to marry that together so that with the supply of experience is from the visit economy and the demand from people with demena the sort of principles that underpin in liveen I've summarized really to three things Innovation and that's what the funders were absolutely clear about we had to do this is an Innovative process it i

sn't about doing more of the same it's it's trying to help help create new things but also the co-creation with people with Dimension they have to be at the heart of the whole process because if you don't have that at the heart of the process then the final experience won't meet their needs and also to and you've got a copy of the report create more accessible research for a wide range of audiences not the standard academic publication which will go to a limited number of B is because zasco is d

esigned for other academics this report isn't so some of the the headline findings from the interviews um and I come from a tourism and leure background so I will kick off and say that the assumption that dementia changes people's Leisure behavior is perhaps a reasonable assumption post diagnosis but it does not cease and that's the key Point here there is an opportunity there to look at how people adapt their behavior and to design the experiences fit that adaptation but as Linda pointed out at

the very beginning you have to overcome barriers and some of the advis group will have seen some of the barriers and some of the the the groups that c for example through the tower also help with advising on those baringers that you could seen that you know in the real world there are things that have to be overcome also everyone is an individual so going back again to the point that Linda said you can create some generalizations but you have to be aware they don't fit everybody so you've got t

o always be aware of nuancing what you do and that nature is a very important sensory experience people with devention from the interviews I think four key points um arose and I've already highlighted some of these but there are some barriers that there is a whole diversity of near can't just highlight one or two things and again there are diverse adaptations that are needed and and that's something for organizations to negotiate in the discussions and then how you can build upon that with busin

esses so that you get this winwin and so that you get also approach which starts to address practical barriers moves you along to inclus civy but I think an important Point I've learned from this project and working with with Linder and others is that it isn't always physical barriers psychosocial ones are also very very important I the way in which people perceive barriers that actually may not be there and that then for example some of these pilot projects bringing people into environments the

y might have feared or been unsure about you see actually that easily overcomes those barriers how have the businesses responded from the business research and I think this won't come as a surprise to anybody you need a champion in the organization you have to be passionate about whatever you're doing and if you're not I think it's going to be really difficult to push this agenda well and many of the organizations that we've worked with were at an early stage of their Journey towards DeMent clus

ivity so they're looking for expertise and knowledge and that's how we could bring together people with dementia some of our academic expertise and best practice from other organizations have been doing so it's a it's a learning process and again you know to reiterate what Linda said and I think um you know bruss from visit England is in the audience and I think Russ russwood would agree with this it's the UN unintended consequences of doing this also helps address other wider accessibility issu

es for other groups so it isn't just a tunnel ficient focus on demena it's actually doing this can unlock other things and vice versa doing other accessibility projects can unlock things for people with dementia so there's a bigger there's a bigger world out there that you have to connect with when you're doing this sort of work and also bear in mind that postco many visitor economic businesses have been under extreme Financial pressure uh that you can't expect the unexpected from so you've got

to be very realistic when working with them what I think you can achieve in a time frame and I think what you will hear from most of the presentations please bear in mind that these outcomes have been achieved in often six to n month period from start to finish so these hav been gestating for three years they're very very sharp outcomes in a very short period of time so what works well we know what works in the Heritage sector and in museums and end doors and you know we're very fortunate to be

to be here today because of the generosity of of historic roal palaces we disting you but they have a long track record with working on on the indoors and working in Heritage so we know about that but what about the outdoors the projects will talk for themselves I don't need to tell you about these projects I think they have a a lovely story to tell you and I think the key thing is that the learnings about the Innovations nature isn't predictable you cannot plan for what's going to happen throug

h easily so you've got to be aware that things like weather and temperature can have a big impact events and activities in the outdoors are challenging but when they work they're fantastic it they are real huge impact on people's well-being and their enjoy and of course there are potential perceived risks that you've got to be able to mitigate and manage and try and preempt but I would still argue that there are much greater rewards if you could move into the nature and outdoor environment with

people with the mure than simply taking I think a slightly easier arue which is focusing on what we know works well indoors so there are challenges but it also I think one thing you will hear the projects is how this has helped to re-engage people post diagnosis to encourage them back into nature and from a sort of a a business perspective I think there are these five processes if you're going to plan for this you've got to create a vision of what want audit the site and we helped some organizat

ions with that process and visit England as as push this agenda forward with accessibility or recently which is really good to see cocreate the experience with people with dementia and other stakeholders in importantly evaluates it as you're developing it and then implements it so the the planning process I think of these five five steps and what are some of the the sort of the key key things that that might come out of this later is at the core of this and I think then there are a series you ca

n say it like unfolding and arue you've got the site and then you start to then look at the experience options you could create and once you've done that there are other ways of adding value as well and I I'm hopefully going to say a couple of things about that adding value Gress this isn't everything that's important I've picked what I think are the top five things that are really key the welcome to people with denture is absolutely Fu dent and I've been very fortunate with the projects that I

worked on that the world Cod was was UNP parallel to mind sper and seeing me go to a visitor traction but it was really really superb you've got to have a well-designed visitor journey and that doesn't just mean on site it also means from the point of leaving home to getting back hug because there are a lot of barriers which the the actual business can't control it has to be people Centric can't do this at a distance you have to engage people and you need very good project management skills they

're fundamental to actually moving these projects on as well as communication and as I've already mentioned you you have to have a champion to actually drive this sport so I'm going to stop there because I think we've got a lot to get through to day I don't want us to be running overtime