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The University of Central Lancashire's ‘Health Promoting University’ initiative has adopted a ‘settings‐based’ approach to health promotion, aimed at embedding within the organisation an understanding of and commitment to holistic health and to development of its healthpromoting potential. Action to promote mental well‐being is one of the initiative's priority foci, overseen by a multidisciplinary inter‐agency working group. Experience to date suggests that the university is an important setting for the protection, promotion and maintenance of mental well‐being. It also suggests that the Health Promoting University offers a robust theoretical framework that can enable the practical development and implementation of a holistic, comprehensive and integrative approach to promoting mental well‐being. This paper provides an overview of the Health Promoting University initiative, describes work carried out on mental well‐being and explores the challenges and opportunities involved in seeking to use the Health Promoting University framework to promote mental well‐being.

In the context of current prison safety and reform, the purpose of this paper is to discuss findings of an impact evaluation of a horticultural programme delivered in 12 prisons in North West England.

The programme was evaluated using quantitative and qualitative methods, including Green Gym© questionnaires, the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS) and Biographic-Narrative Interpretive Method interviews.

Against a backdrop of high rates of suicide, self-harm and poor mental health, the horticultural programme studied proved beneficial to prisoner participants, the most marked effect was on mental health and wellbeing. In addition to data related to the original mental health outcome indicators, the study revealed multiple layers of “added value” related to mental health arising from horticultural work in a prison setting.

The main research limitations were the limited completion of follow-on questionnaires due to prisoners being released and the inability to conduct longitudinal data collection post-release. There was also concern about response bias and lack of resource to compare with the experience of prisoners not participating in the programme.

Positive impacts on prisoners’ mental health and wellbeing included increased confidence, social interactions with staff and other prisoners and gaining skills and qualifications and work experience, increasing potential for post-release employment.

Benefits of horticulture work on health are well established. However, to date, there is little research concerning the effects this work may have on mental wellbeing of prisoners both within prisons and more so upon their release back into the community.

This paper sets out to provide an overview of the development processes, key drivers and the impact of a workplace health strategy developed in the North West of England, between 2005 and 2007. The strategy is led by a Regional Workplace Health Co‐ordinator (funded for two years by regional‐level bodies), and is aimed at a broad range of stakeholders across every layer of influence.

The paper consists of narrative which was co‐constructed by the Guest Editor (third author of the paper) and the co‐authors of the original strategy (first and second authors of the paper). A reflective interview was conducted with the first and second authors, who were interviewed by the third author in the summer of 2008. This interview was transcribed verbatim and then used to co‐construct the paper that follows. The key questions that the narrative was designed to answer were: why and how was the strategy developed? What was the interplay between national and regional levels of the system? What was the value/impact of the strategy?

The strategy provided an important platform from which regional players could develop actions that would, in the long term, positively influence the health of workers in the region. The scope and breadth of the regional strategy further informed national developments, but its effective delivery within the North West region was seriously hampered by the lack of co‐ordination, governance and ownership. The long‐term impacts of the strategy are not being measured as no funding was available for its evaluation.

Although many workplace health strategies have been developed, few are ever critically evaluated.

This chapter presents an organizational learning approach to understanding the objectives and challenges of an National Health Service (NHS) Sustainable Development agenda, which involves the integration of social, ecological and economic concerns into organizational functioning, for example the construction and management of buildings, design and delivery of services, and employment of staff.

The approach is used to frame an empirical analysis of 11 Projects conducted by NHS organizations aiming to advance this agenda during a particularly active phase in the mid to late 2000s. The approach helps identify the assumptions of organizational purpose, strategy and practice inherent in proposals for Sustainable Development and expose the challenges these are likely to pose. This framing helps articulate a vision and identify the actor groups, and their guiding assumptions, which need to be engaged if progress is to be made.

The vision of Sustainable Development being promoted was predominantly one of an NHS contributing to the economic and social determinants of health through its procurement, service development and employment activities. Contributions to environmental determinants only took place where financial gains to the NHS organizations themselves made activities, such as investment in renewable energy, viable in the short-term. Within most Projects strategic tools able to predict and measure benefits had to be developed on-the-job and most received help from external agencies to do this work.

Rather than expecting individual NHS organizations to progress this agenda alone, others involved in the shaping of collective assumptions of the NHS' purpose and strategies for growth must be engaged in what can be viewed as a social process of learning.

Greener on the Outside for Prisons (GOOP) is a therapeutic horticulture programme targeting the high levels of complex health and social care needs in prisons in England. The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns led to unprecedented disruption in prisons in England. This paper examines the experiences of prisoners both during and post-lockdowns in four prisons, to understand the effects of participation in GOOP on health and wellbeing after the disruption of restrictions, and identify implications for developing this programme further.

The paper is based on original qualitative data gathered from in-depth narrative-based interviews and focus groups with prisoners and staff in four English prisons. Audio data was transcribed and subject to a thematic analysis, drawing from a realist-informed lens.

Thematic analysis revealed five key themes: reimagining the GOOP context; increasing empathy between participants; building sense of coherence; reconnecting with nature and a joined-up connection with provider services. The main arguments centre on horticulture in prisons remaining under-utilised as a means of promoting good health and wellbeing, although there is enthusiasm from staff to provide green spaces for the most vulnerable prisoners and develop a range of mechanisms to connect people in prison with nature.

This paper focuses on new knowledge arising from an unprecedented situation in English prisons, from key stakeholders on the frontline of garden activities. Accounts demonstrate the extent of the health and wellbeing benefits of participation in such activities in this challenging environment, which has implications for practice for prisons more widely.

This paper aims to describe the context, process and findings of a qualitative review of Walsall Arts into Health Partnership, which is widely acknowledged to be one of the most progressive community‐based arts and health programmes in the UK.

The research adopted a multi‐method qualitative approach to gathering data, using a combination of documentary analysis and semi‐structured interviews and focus groups with a range of stakeholders.

The findings highlight a number of emerging themes categorised under four broad headings: impact of the Arts into Health work on health and wellbeing of the people of Walsall; effectiveness; key characteristics; and future development of the Arts into Health Partnership.

The research findings point to the value of community arts and health work and to the importance of a partnership approach. However, current debates regarding evaluation approaches within the field point to the need for clarification regarding values, the use of multiple methodologies and engagement with a diversity of stakeholders.

This paper provides an overview of the local and national arts and health policy contexts within which the review took place – shortly before a major restructuring of the health service; outlines the research methodology; presents and discusses the key findings, outlines recommendations; and discusses subsequent action and the impact of the research.

This chapter describes the Okanagan Charter (2015), a health promotions framework co-constructed by professionals, academics, campus leaders, and organizations focused on health and wellbeing. The Okanagan Charter outlines commitments and calls to action to support the health of people and the planet. Campuses and other organizations can sign on to the Charter; signatories are responsible for articulating their goals and actions that will address the commitments and calls to action. This chapter provides an overview of the development of the Okanagan Charter and its subsequent adoption across North America and Europe at post-secondary campuses and other organizations. The chapter examines the successes and the challenges of adoption and implementation and highlights the very recent exponential uptake of the Charter across the United States. The chapter concludes with implications and potential future directions of this health promotion movement, guided by the framework of the Okanagan Charter.

Postsecondary institutions use metrics such as student retention and college completion rates to measure student success. Multiple factors affect the success of first time in college (FTIC) and transfer students. Transfer student success rates are significantly low, with most transfer students nationwide failing to complete their degrees in four-year institutions. The purpose of this study is to better understand the degree progression patterns of both student types in two undergraduate science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs: computer science (CS) and information technology (IT). Recommendations concerning academic advising are discussed to improve transfer student success.

This study describes how transfer student success can be improved by thoroughly analyzing their degree progression patterns. This study uses institutional data from a public university in the United States. Specifically, this study utilizes the data of FTIC and transfer students enrolled in CS and IT programs at the targeted university to understand their degree progression patterns and analyzes the program curricula using network science curricular analytics method to determine what courses in the curriculum require more assistance to retain students.

The major findings of this study are: (1) students’ degree mobility patterns within an institution differ significantly between transfer and FTIC students; (2) some similarities exist between the CS and IT programs in terms of transfer students' degree mobility patterns; (3) transfer students' performance in basic and intermediate level core courses contribute to differences in transfer students' mobility patterns.

This study introduces the concept of “mobility patterns” and examines student degree mobility patterns of both FTIC and transfer students in a large public university to improve the advising process for transfer students regarding courses and identifying secondary majors.

This chapter reviews published studies of the use of pictorial information. Examining image user studies surfaces several research questions often addressed by this body of work, as well as some frequently encountered problems. These questions and problems organize this survey of the literature. Image user studies were included in two valuable reviews of digital image research and development, published by Christie Stephenson and Corinne Jörgensen in 1999 (Jörgensen, 1999; Stephenson, 1999). This overview considers research since that time, focusing on assessment that was not targeted at a single system or service. While attempting to incorporate some interesting research from the information and educational technology communities, this discussion of image delivery as an aspect of digital library development limits coverage of those important literatures.

The purpose of this paper is to map out and characterize existing health-promotion initiatives at Florida International University (FIU) in the USA in order to inform decision makers involved in the development of a comprehensive and a long-term healthy university strategy.

This study encompasses a narrative literature review on health promotion in higher education institutions and the identification and characterization of the various health-promotion initiatives associated with the subject of healthy universities at FIU. The characterization of health-promoting initiatives relied on the stakeholder analysis approach. Using the information obtained from this study, a map for promoting health initiatives with their location, capacities, leadership, and resources was established.

Most publications on health-promoting universities are limited to partial experiences’ reproduction. Self-financing health-promoting initiatives foster competition and work in silos. Gains of health-promotion interventions require governance, participation, and academic considerations. This study highlights the need for standards and minimum requirements for the mapping and characterization of health-promoting initiatives within institutions of higher education. The health-promotion strategy should fall within the university’s social responsibility policy.

This study helps identify organizational strengths and weaknesses and can inform decision makers seeking to establish policies and strategies as well as defining priorities and courses of action for healthy universities.