The recommended dose? Two hours per week. The prescription in question here does not involve medication… but walks in the fresh air. Since 2020, on the initiative of Melissa Lem, a family doctor in Vancouver and the British Columbia Parks Foundation, health professionals can, by registering on the PaRx site, prescribe a “prescription of nature” to their patients suffering from physical or mental problems, such as depression or anxiety. The latter are thus given a free “Discovery” pass from Parks Canada, to stroll, unlimitedly and for one year, in more than 80 national parks, historic sites and maritime conservation areas across the country.
A growing practice
If gardening is an activity promoting well-being, enjoying a magnificent view would be even more effective. More and more scientific studies confirm it: certain mental health problems can be alleviated by spending time in the middle of nature, admiring the trees or the landscape, and listening to the chirping of birds. And to check the benefits of the program, PaRx will launch an application allowing patients to judge their new state of health.
After pioneering British Columbia, other Canadian provinces have joined the movement. Today, all ten provinces are part of the program. Nothing could be more logical, for a country that is full of natural spaces! And yet, Canadian practitioners were not the first to prescribe these green dives. Already in 1982, Japanese doctors recommended shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing. The practice has now been growing for some time in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand. Especially with the successive confinements.
The benefits of the forest
If mental health problems are not more acute in Canada than elsewhere – the country benefits from a certain sweetness of life – doctors have identified anxieties linked to recent situations (Covid-19 pandemic, war in Ukraine …), or to extreme climatic events, floods or heat waves, such as those experienced by British Columbia last year.
“Climate change induces a very great feeling of insecurity in some individuals. However, to face it, citizens must be resilient, therefore in the best possible state of physical and mental health”, points out Melissa Lem. Other good news: in addition to the benefits for the general well-being of patients, nature baths make them aware of the need to mobilize to protect the environment.
It was while moving, a few years ago, from a town in British Columbia to Toronto that Dr. Melissa Lem realized how much she missed nature… “Science shows that two hours a week of “Immersion in nature is the ideal dose to improve health, she says. It is important for healthcare professionals to act beyond their practice.” Back on the West Coast, she contacted the BC Parks Foundation to design the PaRx program. While all provinces are participating, Yukon, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories were approached with caution. “Many Aboriginal people there already have a strong relationship with nature. We are not here to give them lessons, she says. to facilitate their access to the parks”, specifies Dr. Lem.