New partnership for Dorothy House with Wiltshire Wildlife Trust

Dorothy House is delighted to announce a new partnership with Wiltshire Wildlife Trust to connect the grounds at the Hospice in Winsley to the Kennet and Avon canal path in the valley below. As part of a wider Dorothy House ambition to open up the gardens to anyone wishing to find a space for reflection and serenity in grief, this partnership offers the wider community the opportunity to benefit from being more connected with nature in a sustainable and compassionate way.

A compassionate partnership

Wiltshire Wildlife Trust is part of the UK Wildlife Trusts movement and was founded in 1962, driven by a concern to protect local wildlife and natural habitats. Today, they manage over 40 nature reserves across Wiltshire and Swindon, including wetland, woodland, meadow and chalk downland habitats. The Trust also works with local communities through a range of nature-based educational and wellbeing activities to promote sustainable living and to increase nature connectedness and wellbeing.

With compassion at our core, Dorothy House is committed to minimising the environmental impact and carbon footprint connected to our care out in the community and on our estates. This exciting partnership therefore further embeds our commitment to this ambition.

What is nature connectedness?

Contact with nature is not the same as connection with nature. While contact with nature is important for our general health, connection plays a much more important role in our sense of wellbeing.

In the early 2000s, researchers at the University of Derby began seeking to understand this relationship – the level of closeness, or ‘connectedness’ to nature in more detail. In the years that have followed, this concept has been developed with a view to understanding how we can improve levels of connectedness. The result of these studies was the theory of the ‘Five Pathways’: a framework to help bring about a closer relationship with nature.

The Five Pathways to connecting with nature

• Sensory contact with the natural world: actively engaging with nature through the senses, for example listening to birdsong, smelling wild flowers, watching the breeze in the trees, going barefoot, or tasting the fruits of nature.
• Finding an emotional bond with, and love for, nature: this could be finding joy in wildlife at play, taking a moment to feel calm with nature, or wondering at details, like a spider’s web.
• Taking time to appreciate the beauty of nature: this could be creating some wild art, painting the amazing colours of insects, taking a photo of a flower, or visiting a place with an amazing view.
• Thinking about the meaning and signs of nature: honouring and celebrating the cycles and signs of nature. This could be mapping the journey of a bee, finding folktales about nature, or celebrating key moments, like the longest day or the first swallow of summer.
• Showing compassion and care for nature: looking after nature as you would look after yourself, taking actions that are good for nature. This could be planting wildflowers, digging a pond, putting up a nest box, or supporting conservation charities.

Nature and grief

Nature has long been considered important for people’s mental health. For example, 73% of UK adults surveyed in the Mental Health Foundation’s YouGov poll said that connecting with nature was important in terms of managing their mental health during the pandemic.

For those who are grieving, connectedness in nature can offer many benefits and aid healing:

• It can remind us of the continuum of life and that we and our loved one are still part of something greater than ourselves that goes on existing without us.
• It provides a place and space to attend to our grief without intrusion from the ongoing demands of work, family and everyday responsibilities.
• It can promote mindfulness, allowing the grieving person to anchor themselves in a moment by physically touching, smelling and listening to nature.
• It allows us to disconnect from technology and find quiet, solitude and comfort in life rhythms that are natural, soothing and restorative.
• It reminds us of the beauty that can be found all around us – even in our grief, it can be comforting to realise that beauty still exists.
• The sights and sounds of nature can offer distraction from a cycle of difficult thoughts.

Find out more about ecotherapy as a nature-based approach to healing.

Dorothy House and nature

As part of our organisation-wide commitment to sustainability, the partnership with Wiltshire Wildlife Trust is an exciting next step. By working together and implementing the five pathways strategy to promote connectedness to nature, we hope our beautiful grounds at Dorothy House will provide welcome solace to anyone experiencing grief and bereavement.

With our recently enlarged Firefly Woods, sweeping lawn, stunning views across the Wiltshire countryside and access to the canal, we believe our new partnership with Wiltshire Wildlife Trust will build on our work to provide our community with the connectedness to nature and compassion so needed in such a busy world.

We will work closely with the Trust to not only improve connectivity to the wider natural landscape, but also improve the biodiversity on our grounds, such as the creation of a beautiful wildflower meadow, which will attract pollinators such as butterflies and bees.

Wiltshire Wildlife Trust – places to visit

For those seeking solace and reflection in their grief, the Trust also has lots of wonderful places to visit nearby to experience the healing benefits of nature, including:

• Cloatley Meadows, Malmesbury
• Green Lane Woods, Trowbridge
• Peppercombe Wood, Devizes
• Roundway Orchard, Devizes
• Smallbrook Meadows, Warminster
• Widbrook Wood, Trowbridge

Take a look at their upcoming events here.