Ecominds-effects-on-mental-wellbeing-evaluation-report

An evaluation for Mind 595.5.4 Community involvementWhen participants were asked how many times in thelast year they had helped with or attended activitiesorganised in your local area, the majority of them(81%) showed an increase in the frequency of gettinginvolved in other community activities 199 after beinginvolved with the <strong>Ecominds</strong> scheme (Figure 31).Figure 31. Changes in frequency of participant involvement incommunity activities as a result of the <strong>Ecominds</strong> programmePercentage of participants (%)100806040200At leastonce aweekAt leastonce amonthAt leastonce every3 monthsAt leastonce every6 monthsBeginning of programmeEnd of programmeLessoftenNever5.5.5 Effect of project type, participant gender andage on social inclusionEither a series of mixed between-within subjectsanalysis of variance – ANOVA (where the data wereparametric); or a series of Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Testson a split data file (when the data were non parametric)were conducted to assess the impact of project type,participant gender and participant age on the socialengagement and support, community belonging andneighbourhood satisfaction scores between the startand the end of the <strong>Ecominds</strong> scheme. There was asignificant increase in social engagement and supportscores after taking part in <strong>Ecominds</strong> regardless of: i)whether the participants attended a care farm, a STHor an environmental conservation project; ii) whetheror not the project had a ‘formal therapy’ element; iii)whether they were male, female or transgender; oriii) whether they were under 30 or over 30. As withwellbeing findings, there were no significant differencesin social engagement and support, community belongingof neighbourhood satisfaction scores between thedifferent project types, different genders or differentage groups and no interaction <strong>effects</strong> and so it can beconcluded that none of these factors affected levels ofthe social inclusion measures used or the amount ofchange in scores between the start and the end of theprogramme. This suggests that all observed changeswere due to taking part in the <strong>Ecominds</strong> scheme.5.5.6 Comments from participants – Social inclusion5.6 Connection to nature findingsConnection to nature is another main theme ofthe <strong>Ecominds</strong> evaluation and was assessed in theWhat participants enjoyed most – Social inclusionMixing with people, getting on the job,working with a group and taking direction.Being out in scenic surroundings and theteamwork aspect of the task.Sense of satisfaction upon completionof the project.The company of our group in the fine weather.Chatting with friends.Working as a team, the company and food.Sleeping under the stars.Looking what other allotments have beendoing, meeting people.Chatting to other women.Meeting new people, chatting and gettingto know the place.Made close friends…Meeting fellow students/tutors. We want it tobe a celebration day and the sun has come out.The overall meeting up of people. Helpfuland friendly staff, teamwork.‘In-depth’ evaluation with an adapted form of theConnectedness to Nature Scale. This measure wasused both to detect changes over the course of the<strong>Ecominds</strong> scheme and also to examine changes as aresult of one <strong>Ecominds</strong> session.5.6.1 Connection to Nature Scale (CNS) adaptedshort formChanges over the <strong>Ecominds</strong> schemeA paired samples t test showed a statistically significantincrease in participant connection to nature from thestart (M=3.66, ± .49) to the end of the <strong>Ecominds</strong> scheme199 i.e. in addition to <strong>Ecominds</strong>