The B.C. Parks Foundation now allows registered doctors, nurses and other health-care professionals to prescribe Parks Canada passes to patients with conditions ranging from cancer and cardiovascular disease to anxiety in four provinces.
The program, called PaRx, was first launched in that province in Nov. 2020 and has since expanded to Ontario, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Doctors registered with PaRx can offer Parks Canada Discovery Passes to patients free of charge. These passes typically cost $75 for adults.
The foundation is also guiding health-care workers through the forests of B.C. as a means to decrease COVID-19-related stress.
These programs are part of a larger trend of park prescription, with a global and centuries-long history.
According to a study from Appalachian State University, the tradition of prescribing exercise for disease management dates back to Susruta, Galen and Hippocrates.
In the 1980s, the idea of shinrin-yoku—forest bathing—emerged in Japan. This form of therapy submerges the patient into a forest to relieve stress.
It wasn’t until the 1990s that the concept of the “social prescription” became popular.
According to the study, a social prescription is a way of connecting patients in primary care with support systems from their own communities.
In 1998, the New Zealand Ministry of Health implemented the Green Prescription program, which encouraged physical activity in nature. The following year, the United States developed a similar program called Prescription Trails.
In the 2000s, a study across the United States concluded that after school “green time” seems to reduce ADHD symptoms.
This led to a gradual growth of programs that prescribe physical exercise in parks for a number of physical and mental health conditions. By 2008, more than 50 of these programs had been established in the United States. In 2018, Robert Bateman founded B.C. Parks Foundation. Two years later it partnered with Parks Canada to facilitate the prescription of park passes.
Does prescribing outdoor activity actually solve health problems?
Several studies have linked exercise and being around nature with general well-being.
A 2019 U.K. study found that spending 120 minutes in natural spaces outdoors is associated with better health. Likewise, a meta-study published in Science Advances highlights a wealth of research that suggests that there are physical and psychological benefits from spending time in nature.
However, as the study points out, a lot of research surveyed was conducted in urban environments in the Global North. Mental health benefits can fluctuate based on a number of factors including socioeconomic status, personal preference and where one lives.
It is also less established whether nature time and exercise impacts long-term mental health.
Physician and PaRx director Melissa Lem spoke to CBC on the goals of the program:
“We’re really asking [health-care professionals] to prioritize patients who live close to Parks Canada sites so they’ll have more access and can make it part of their everyday lives, and also those for whom the cost of a pass might be a barrier to nature access.”
It seems the PaRx initiative is concerned with increasing park accessibility in general. While PaRx works as a medical prescription, it is also expected to boost park attendance.
Taking the scenic route…
Most Canadians do not live near one of the only 48 national parks in the country and most people may not have time to go out of their way for a hiking trip. This suggests that the benefits of a program that prescribes green space might still be inaccessible to a lot of people.
But those without access to this kind of environment can still tap into the benefits of everyday exercise.
Traditionally, most people understand travel as a means to get from point A to point B. Therefore, traveling is wasted time that needs to be cut down whenever possible. However, in his PhD thesis, Portland State University civil and environmental engineering student Patrick Allan Singleton proposes the positive utility of travel paradigm. He says that “travel may not be inherently disliked and could instead provide benefits or be motivated by desires for travel-based multitasking, positive emotions or fulfillment.”
Benefits of travel—especially commuting via cycling or walking—can include physical and mental health benefits as well as the feeling of autonomy.
In 2019, Singleton surveyed 700 people from Portland who actively commute to work and noted higher rates of health, confidence and “overall hedonic well-being.”
While not everyone has the proximity or time to access beautiful parks, we can apply Singleton’s lesson and use the time we have to spend traveling as a way of connecting with the outdoors. Even without access to a national park, we can all take steps to improve our well-being.
Featured graphic by Maryam Teima.
