Green spaces are well known for the mental health benefits they provide people, but there is still a sense that more could be done to soften the urban jungles so many of us live in. The latest grist for the mill was provided by a new study from the University of Washington, which explored the mental health benefits coming into contact with nature provides people.
The researchers began by building a baseline to understand how nature impacts our cognitive functioning, our emotional wellbeing and various other aspects of mental health.
“In hundreds of studies, nature experience is associated with increased happiness, social engagement, and manageability of life tasks, and decreased mental distress,” they explain. “In addition, nature experience is linked to improved cognitive functioning, memory and attention, imagination and creativity, and children’s school performance. These links span many dimensions of human experience, and include a greater sense of meaning and purpose in life.”
Smarter planning
The researchers believe their work helps to underline the importance of factoring in mental health benefits of planning decisions related to the environment. The authors explain that this already happens in terms of other parts of human health, with tree plantations supported due to their impact on air quality, whereas parks are supported for the boost they provide to physical activity levels. Mental health doesn’t tend to enter the equation however.
The team developed a conceptual model that they believe can help planners to make better and more informed decisions about various environmental projects, and the impact they may have on people’s mental health. The model includes four key steps for planners to take into account:
- Elements of nature included in a project, say at a school or across the whole city;
- amount of contact people will have with nature;
- how people interact with nature;
- and how people may benefit from those interactions, based on the latest scientific evidence.
The team hope that the tool will help planners, not least in assessing the mental health impact of adding or removing nature from currently underserved communities.
“If the evidence shows that nature contact helps to buffer against negative impacts from other environmental predictors of health, then access to these landscapes can be considered a matter of environmental justice. We hope this framework will contribute to this discussion,” they explain. “Eventually, it could be developed and potentially used to help address health disparities in underserved communities.”
