Hill Walking And Mental Health Day - More News!
Posted by Jeremy Windsor on May 3, 2022
Our “Hill Walking and Mental Health Day” on Monday 13th June 2022 is really starting to take shape! Details of the day can be found here. Find out more information about our presenters below. Why not come along?!?
Paul Besley
“Walking For Health And Well Being”
Workshop
Paul Besley is a writer who began exploring the British landscape whilst at school in the 1970s. His focus of work is the interaction between human and the land. This has evolved into the study of how the physical environment imprints itself on humans and how as a race we respond.
His first ever hike across the Peak District moors was an epic disaster; having no map or compass, and battered by a storm, he and a friend sought refuge at a house only to have the door shut in their face. They hid in a phone box until a parent arrived with a car and an unforgettable lecture. From that inauspicious start he has gained experience and knowledge walking in many parts of the world. As a way of giving something back for almost five decades of pleasure in the hills, rain, or shine, he became a member of Woodhead Mountain Rescue.
His belief that walking is a simple activity has led him to support the effort of many just starting out on a lifetime of pleasure. He has a desire to show people that walking does not just have to be in the hills and mountains of national parks or rely on expensive equipment, but can be enjoyed from the front door of home through our urban landscape and out into our local countryside.
His books, Day Walks in the South Pennines and 1001 Walking Tips, for Vertebrate Publishing, and the three Peak District guidebooks for Cicerone Press, are well respected by walkers and explorers of all ages.
He lives close to the Peak District in The Outdoor City of Sheffield with his wife, metalsmith Alison Counsell, their two pet dogs Monty and Olly, and his Mountain Rescue Search Dog Scout.
An interview with Paul can be found here.
Andy Higson
Black Dog Outdoors - Re-Connecting With Nature
Talk
Andy is director of Black Dog Outdoors. Through organised walking, climbing, cycling and paddle sports events, the organisation provides, “a platform for reconnecting people with the great outdoors”. Andy is a qualified Mountain Leader and Mental Health First Aider.
The Black Dog Outdoors website can be found here.
Graeme Hill
Using Green Spaces For Social Prescribing
Talk and Workshop
Graeme is a long term campaigner for equity in the outdoors and supports the concept that everybody should be able to enjoy the experiences that hills and mountains bring. He was instrumental in the formation of the BMC GB paraclimbing team and has been delivering disability awareness training in climbing for over 15 years. He now works in the NHS as a social prescriber and with a number of partners in the borough of Rochdale is developing both green and blue social prescribing pathways. Graeme is also a mountaineering instructor and a member of the Association of Mountaineering Instructors (AMI).
Emma Holland
Mind Over Mountains - Restoring Mental Health Naturally
Talk
Emma is Senior Mountain Leader for Mind Over Mountains, a mental health charity that brings together hill-walking and mindfulness in nature. Her role within the charity is to organise walks and to support, lead and manage the mountain leader team.
Emma has 15 years experience of working in the NHS supporting adults with mental health difficulties. She’s passionate about promoting the link between spending time outdoors and improvements in mental health, believing that exercise and fresh air builds confidence, promotes recovery, increases self esteem and improves physical fitness.
Emma's website can be found here.
Alice McNeil
Arriving Home - Using Mindfulness And Yoga To Debrief
Workshop
Alice McNeil is a registered Physiotherapist and Yoga/Mindfulness teacher who is currently undertaking a PhD at Sheffield Hallam University exploring physical activity in nature with a special focus on the impact nature connectedness brings to the experience and implications this has on wellbeing. She also holds a BA in Outdoor Studies, an MSc in Psychology and has spent 2 years cycling from the UK to New Zealand as part of her honeymoon. She is a regular guest teacher on a number of yoga retreats and holds talks and workshops which combine practical yoga and mindfulness techniques with philosophy in outdoor adventure activities.
Alice's website can be found here.
Wendy Masterton
Greenspace Programmes For Mental Health - What Works And Why?
Talk And Workshop
Wendy is a Lecturer in Criminology (specialising in Substance Use) at the University of Stirling. She is part of the Salvation Army Centre for Addiction Services and Research and the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research. She has a MSc in Health Psychology, and her PhD was focused upon greenspace programmes for improving mental health and supporting people with problem drug and alcohol use. Wendy has also worked on various research studies relating to substance use and homelessness. Her research interests include substance use, harm reduction, mental health, implementation science, and the health benefits of greenspace and greenspace interventions.
More information about Wendy's research can be found here.
Helen Milton
The Ups And Downs Of Walking With Dementia
Talk
Helen is the Health Walk Coordinator for Derbyshire Dales District Council, supporting 35-40 volunteer walk leaders who lead weekly free walks aimed at getting out those who would not walk on their own. She also run a series of local fitness sessions in village halls across Derbyshire and is a keen walker and biker, both gravel and mountain, but has just gone to the dark side and purchased an e-MTB!
Tony Page
Mental Health Problems 2022 - A Very Short Overview!
Talk
Tony Page is a retired general adult psychiatrist. Growing up in Cumbria, he started hillwalking as a teenager and is still more likely to be found in his walking boots than wearing his climbing shoes or mountain bike helmet. He is a member of one of the Lake District mountain rescue teams, a volunteer navigation instructor for the Lake District National Park and remains involved with mental health as a trustee of his local branch of MIND.
Kaye Richards
Thinking Therapeutically Outdoors
Talk and Workshop
Kaye is an outdoor professional, chartered psychologist, and senior lecturer in psychology at Liverpool John Moores University. She teaches and researches across mental health and well-being, positive psychology, outdoor adventure therapy, and outdoor learning. She has spent many years training outdoor leaders and developing outdoor adventure therapy, and has published across associated interdisplinary areas. Most recently she co-authored, ‘Outdoor Mental Health Interventions and Outdoor Therapy: A Statement of Good Practice’ (The Institute for Outdoor Learning) and has developed a research informed framework of ustainability indicators for outdoor mental health Interventions.
Lee-Anna Simmons
EMDR With Walking And Climbing
Talk and Workshop
Lee-Anna Simmons is a psychological therapist who includes rock climbing and walking in her work. She is an EMDR consultant (EMDR Europe accredited) and will focus upon how EMDR can be, and is being, combined with walking as a clinical intervention for trauma recovery.
Lee-Anna is also a climbing instructor (CWA, CWDI Mountain Training) and has found this especially useful in her work as an Art Therapist (MA Goldsmiths). Conveniently her clinic is based next to a climbing wall!Most recently she has been dividing her time between South Wales, London and Albania’s capital city - Tirana!
Lee-Anna's website can be found here.
Jake Tyler
A Walk On The Edge
Talk
Jake is a mental health advocate and broadcaster. His BBC Radio Sussex and Surrey show, “Open Up with Jake Tyler” has been running since September 2019 and focuses upon a range of mental health issues. Jake is well placed to talk about this as just a few years ago he suffered an episode of life threatening depression. This was treated, in part, by a walk of more than 3000 miles around the UK. Details of the journey and his subsequent recovery are brilliantly described in his new book, “A Walk From The Wild Edge”.
Our “Hill Walking and Mental Health Day” will be taking place in Hathersage on Monday 13th June 2022.
The event will begin at 0900 and finish at approximately 1700.
The cost of the day is £65 (non BMMS members) and £45 (BMMS members). This will include a packed lunch, plenty of snacks and drinks throughout the day PLUS a copy of Jake's book.
Bookings can be made here.
A small number of FREE places will be available to those who are unable to afford the cost of the day. Details will be announced shortly.
A certificate of attendance will be provided to all those who take part. CPD approval is provided by British Mountain Guides, Mountain Training UK and British Association of International Mountain Leaders.
The event is a collaboration between the British Mountain Medicine Society (BMMS), British Mountaineering Council (BMC), University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) and Pure Outdoor.
Thanks to the Alpkit Foundation for their generous support.
Reviews of "A Walk From The Wild Edge" by Tony Page and Emma Holland can be found on our blog.
Read about the psychological benefits of the British hills here.
The principles behind Green Care are nothing new! Read about the fascinating work of Ethel Haythornthwaite.
This is our first face-to-face event since the Covid pandemic. Feedback from our previous Science Day can be found here.
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