Named one of the top global wellness trends in 2019, nature prescriptions are being written by healthcare professionals across the planet from the UK to the United States. And rightly so: from improved eyesight and immune function to reduced stress and ADHD symptoms, the evidence is growing about the health benefits of green time. We’ll review research highlights from the significant body of knowledge on nature and health, discuss how health is a powerful frame for increasing support for nature-positive policy proposals, and how nature prescribing can improve the health of the planet.
Jenny Roe will set out a new urban paradigm for “Restorative Cities” (Roe and McCay, 2021) underpinned by mental health and wellbeing, that brings together scientific evidence and practice from multiple disciplines to deliver a new theoretical and practical framework to develop more socially and environmentally just cities. The framework comprises seven inter-related pillars of urban design that support mental health and human flourishing including a vital role for city parks, urban green spaces and blue (water) settings. She will set out some of the principles of the Green and Blue City for mental health using her home city of Edinburgh as a case study.
Dr. Melissa Lem, MD, CCFP, FCFP
Founder & Director, Park Prescriptions, PaRx
President-Elect Canadian Assoc. Physicians for the Environment
Vancouver, BC, Canada
Dr. Melissa Lem is a Vancouver family physician and Founder and Director of PaRx, Canada’s national nature prescription program powered by the BC Parks Foundation. Also President-Elect of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, she is an internationally recognized expert on the nature-health connection. A widely published writer, she was the resident medical expert on CBC TV’s hit lifestyle show Steven and Chris for four seasons and continues to appear on air as a regular contributor to CBC Radio and CTV News.
Dr. Lem was the inaugural winner of University College’s Young Alumni of Influence Award at the University of Toronto, a 2020 Joule Innovation grant recipient from the Canadian Medical Association, a 2021 World Parks Week Ambassador, and is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia.
Jenny Roe, PhD
Co-author new book: Restorative Cities
Director, Center for Design & Health, University of Virginia, USA
Honorary Professor, Heriot Watt University, UK
Virginia, USA / Scotland, UK
Jenny Roe is an environmental psychologist, Professor of Design and Health at the University of Virginia, and former head of Landscape Architecture for an international architectural practice. She has written extensively on the impact of the environment on health and wellbeing with over 50 peer review journal articles, including for the World Health Organization and The Lancet. She has over 15 years’ experience in the use of ‘restorative environments’ to build healthier urban societies and communities including a vital role for urban parks and green space. She is co-author of Restorative Cities: Urban Design for Mental Health and Wellbeing (Roe and McCay, 2021) which sets out a new strategy that places mental health and human flourishing at the forefront of city design.
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