Counter the irks, with Nature works

There seems to be an endless range of works – artworks, brickworks, earthworks, fieldworks, fireworks, masterworks, networks, officeworks – we can get stuck into, but few of these can offer the benefits of nature works, which hasn’t until recently rated as being worth writing about.

And yet nature has been there all along. Perhaps because of an overindulgence in some of these others ‘works’ we now realise that nature is fundamental – a core value – to successfully pursuing these other tasks or ‘works’. 

Is it little wonder then that we now have doctors writing ‘green scripts’.  

“I’m not a medical doctor,” writes Ray Moynihan in: How a walk in nature works (Echo, August 1, 2024), “I can’t offer healthcare advice. But many medicos around the world are today prescribing a walk in the park. ‘Green prescribing’ is now well and truly a thing.”

Three decades ago, doctors in New Zealand started writing ‘green scripts’ – explicitly prescribing more physical activity to their patients to improve health. 

One early study randomly assigned close to 500 patients in Auckland and Dunedin to two groups. 

For both groups, their GPs gave verbal advice to do more exercise, including more walking. But for just one group, the GPs put that advice in writing as well. 

All study participants increased their physical activity. But the group who got the written prescription as well, benefited more. Writing in 1998, the researchers concluded: ‘The green prescription was more effective than verbal advice alone in increasing the physical activity level over a six-week period.’

Clearly, that was just one small short-term study. But it suggested the simple addition of a written script could work magic. Research in this field has since exploded. 

Known now variously as ‘green social prescribing’ or using ‘nature-based interventions’ doctors and other healthcare workers from Helsinki to Melbourne are prescribing everything from walks in nature, including national parks, to swimming, gardening, and conservation volunteering. 

And there are so many studies today, that researchers are regularly publishing reviews summarising all the results, producing a convincing mountain of evidence. 

In 2023, a review of over 80 studies about the impacts of nature-based interventions for vulnerable youth found ‘outcomes were largely positive’ for mental wellbeing and behaviour. Another 2023 review of studies found clear benefits for children with autism.  

   … From MMM Issue #46, Oct-Nov. 2024