We often talk about how difficult it is to measure social value. This is especially true for mental health and wellbeing, yet almost every element of community development has a mental health and wellbeing component.
Studies show how beneficial access to urban green space, beautiful design, neighbourly interactions and active travel are to wellbeing. But mental health is rarely the focus of how communities or developments are planned.
Flipping this around to bring wellbeing into the conversation much earlier means being braver and more proactive. We need to ask questions that go beyond just ‘are there enough houses, transport links, jobs or GPs locally?’ We need to dig deeper and ask if people feel as though they are a valued part of their community.
Barton Willmore, now Stantec, is exploring these issues, reviewing projects such as a multi-phase regeneration proposal to provide two world-class mental health facilities in the grounds of Springfield University Hospital in Tooting, south London. Here, the ethos centres on mental and physical health, from inclusion of a 32-acre public park to design of the homes and amenities and community-led health mentor events.
It can be easy for mental health and wellbeing to slip through the cracks between multidisciplinary teams on projects, but by ensuring the proper integration of design and technical expertise, we can achieve more inclusive outcomes. Improving something like loneliness is about not only coffee mornings for elderly people but also opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds to meet and connect.
This is not to overlook the better measuring of social value. Much is happening in this space, including our Greenkeeper tool for better understanding physical health and wellbeing contributions made by green space. But aspects such as mental health will never be truly quantifiable. To achieve successful and inclusive community development, we need to ask the right questions – and not rely too much on data to guide us.
Rachel Kirkwood is senior social value and engagement consultant at Stantec
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