The qualities of natural environments that support the rehabilitation process of individuals with stress-related mental disorder in nature-based rehabilitation

Pálsdóttir, Anna María; Stigsdotter, Ulrika K.; Persson, Dennis; Thorpert, Petra; Grahn, Patrik

doi:10.1016/j.ufug.2017.11.016

Cited by 63 publications

(92 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Building on the ecotherapy concept, some modern physicians and public health practitioners are promoting expanded use of nature-assisted therapies to help improve health, alleviate mental distress, and treat post-traumatic stress disorders (165–170). The US National Park Service has established a Park Rx program 7 , as have Cornell University 8 and the College of William and Mary and the surrounding community of Williamsburg, VA 9 The University of Maryland is also in process of developing such a nature-based health program, with a planned start in 2019 (Ariana Sutton-Grier, personal communication, cited with permission).…”

Section: Recommendations To Increase Resiliency To Disasters By Reducmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancing Disaster Resilience by Reducing Stress-Associated Health Impacts

Sandifer

Walker²

2018

Front. Public Health

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Disasters are a recurring fact of life, and major incidents can have both immediate and long-lasting negative effects on the health and well-being of people, communities, and economies. A primary goal of many disaster preparedness, response, and recovery plans is to reduce the likelihood and severity of disaster impacts through increased resilience of individuals and communities. Unfortunately, most plans do not address directly major drivers of long-term disaster impacts on humans—that is, acute, chronic, and cumulative stress—and therefore do less to enhance resilience than they could. Stress has been shown to lead to or exacerbate ailments ranging from mental illness, domestic violence, substance abuse, post-traumatic stress disorders, and suicide to cardiovascular disease, respiratory problems, and other infirmities. Individuals, groups, communities, organizations, and social ties are all vulnerable to stress. Based on a targeted review of what we considered to be key literature about disasters, resilience, and disaster-associated stress effects, we recommend eight actions to improve resiliency through inclusion of stress alleviation in disaster planning: (1) Improve existing disaster behavioral and physical health programs to better address, leverage, and coordinate resources for stress reduction, relief, and treatment in disaster planning and response. (2) Emphasize pre- and post-disaster collection of relevant biomarker and other health-related data to provide a baseline of health status against which disaster impacts could be assessed, and continued monitoring of these indicators to evaluate recovery. (3) Enhance capacity of science and public health early-responders. (4) Use natural infrastructure to minimize disaster damage. (5) Expand the geography of disaster response and relief to better incorporate the displacement of affected people. (6) Utilize nature-based treatment to alleviate pre- and post-disaster stress effects on health. (7) Review disaster laws, policies, and regulations to identify opportunities to strengthen public health preparedness and responses including for stress-related impacts, better engage affected communities, and enhance provision of health services. (8) With community participation, develop and institute equitable processes pre-disaster for dealing with damage assessments, litigation, payments, and housing.

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Section: Recommendations To Increase Resiliency To Disasters By Reducmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancing Disaster Resilience by Reducing Stress-Associated Health Impacts

Sandifer

Walker²

2018

Front. Public Health

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“…Research has described how perceptions of natural environments and features may impact various aspects of human health and wellbeing (e.g., Ulrich, 1984; Nilsson et al, 2011; Haluza et al, 2014), cognitive functions (e.g., Kaplan, 1995; Ottosson and Grahn, 2005; Berman et al, 2008) and stress-related aspects such as parasympathetic nervous system activity (Annerstedt et al, 2013), cortisol levels (Ward Thompson et al, 2012; Roe et al, 2013) and blood pressure and heart rate (e.g., Ottosson and Grahn, 2005). Such environmental influence has also been studied in various kinds of rehabilitation contexts (e.g., Ottosson, 2001; Pálsdóttir, 2014) and nature-based rehabilitation for individuals with stress-related disorders has been performed in various settings (e.g., Sonntag-Öström et al, 2014, 2015; Pálsdóttir et al, 2017; Stigsdotter et al, 2017b). Sahlin (2014) describes how such environments could promote and facilitate high-order cognitive behaviors such as existential reflections that aid in shaping experiences of meaning, coherence, and acceptance.…”

Section: Natural Environments As a Salutogenic Factormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This has also been clear when studied in various rehabilitation contexts. For instance, Pálsdóttir et al (2017) investigated which qualities that were considered the most restorative in a rehabilitation forest environment. The results showed the perceived sensory dimensions Serene, Space, Refuge, and Nature to be rated highest in this regard and the Social quality to generally be seen as the least restorative, all in line with previous studies (e.g., Grahn and Stigsdotter, 2010).…”

Section: The Supportive Environment Theory; An Ecological Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We argue that edible forest gardens in urban green spaces is an interesting concept to explore, both in regard to such dimensions of ecological and social sustainability as has been outlined above, and in terms of affording perceived qualities of salutogenic importance, which could be highlighted using the perceived sensory dimensions framework described above. Compared with lawns, edible forest gardens seems particularly promising in supporting perceived sensory dimensions such as Nature, Rich in species, and Refuge; dimensions that have been described in the literature as important to support restorative processes (e.g., Grahn et al, 2010; Pálsdóttir et al, 2017; Stigsdotter et al, 2017b). Table 2 relates typical features of the edible forest garden with each perceived sensory dimension of the SET theory.…”

Section: Perceived Sensory Dimensions Of Edible Forest Gardensmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Trees and other perennials in the semi-open multi-strata structure (Figure 2) of the edible forest garden could furthermore support affordances for Refuge through the creation of shelters and hideaways. Such affordances have been described as particularly important from the perspective of stress restoration (Grahn et al, 2010; Pálsdóttir et al, 2017; Stigsdotter et al, 2017b). This has also been indicated in forest rehabilitation contexts (Sonntag-Öström et al, 2015).…”

Section: Perceived Sensory Dimensions Of Edible Forest Gardensmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Salutogenic Affordances and Sustainability: Multiple Benefits With Edible Forest Gardens in Urban Green Spaces

Stoltz

Schäffer

2018

Front. Psychol.

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With increased urbanization, ecological challenges such as climate change and loss of biodiversity, and stress-related disorders globally posing a major threat to public health and wellbeing, the development of efficient multiple-use strategies for urban green spaces and infrastructures is of great importance. In addition to benefits such as climate and water regulation, food production, and biodiversity conservation, green spaces and features have been associated with various health and wellbeing outcomes from a psychological perspective. Research suggests links between exposure to green environmental qualities and restoration from psycho-physiological stress and attention fatigue, promotion of physical activity, increased neighborhood satisfaction and even reduced mortality. Especially strong associations have been observed in urban and socio-economically challenged areas. Usually such salutogenic, i.e., health-promoting, effects are explained through theories related to the notion of biophilia, i.e., the idea that humans share innate tendencies to attend to natural environments and features that have been beneficial during evolution. This paper assumes an ecological approach to perception and behavior to be fruitful in order to analyze the salutogenic potential of environments such as urban green spaces and to step beyond the “green vs. gray” dichotomy that has been prevalent through much of the research on health-promoting environments. Through an analysis of environmental affordances for certain perceived qualities such an approach is explored through a proposed concept for urban green space use and management, the edible forest garden. Such gardens, based on agroecological principles, have emerged as one of the most promising models regarding ecologically sustainable food production. In addition to potential contributions of importance for urban sustainability and biodiversity, we argue that the inclusion of edible forest gardens in urban green spaces – today globally dominated by lawns – also potentially could reinforce several affordances of salutogenic importance, both in terms of, e.g., social cohesion but also in regard to restoration from psycho-physiological stress and attention fatigue. Increased opportunities for contact with nature and processes of food production may also reinforce pro-environmental behaviors in the population and thus also affect long-term sustainability.

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Species diversity enhances perceptions of urban coastlines at multiple scales

2022

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1. Biodiversity is increasingly understood as an important mediator of human aesthetic appreciation of scenes and landscapes, with implications for cultural services and well-being. However, the generality of biodiversity effects across affective emotions, scales and habitats remains unclear.2. Urban coastal intertidal habitats on seawalls and other artificial structures are expanding worldwide. Despite growing calls to prioritise biodiversity in urban coastal planning and management, the potential co-benefits determined by people's responses to biodiversity in these novel intertidal communities are unexplored.3. We investigated, using image-based questionnaires, how several facets of biodiversity influence how people perceive urban coastal structures at both landscape and close-up scales.4. Species richness strongly enhanced people's ratings of images for aesthetic appeal, interest and calming potential at both scales, but was more pronounced at the close-up scale. Species evenness also increased ratings at the close-up scale, while functional diversity (Rao's Q) was associated with a decline in aesthetic appeal and interest at the close-up scale, indicating that people can disfavour scenes dominated by species with contrasting traits. 5. Analysis of free-text assessments showed that people strongly and positively valued scenes that were perceived to be 'diverse', a response that was much more common when viewing scenes with high species richness. The underlying structure type also clearly affected appraisals, with more obviously engineered structures being perceived to be less natural and thus less desirable. 6. Our results show that biodiversity's effects on aesthetic appreciation extend to multiple affective emotions and to unfamiliar urban intertidal habitats, suggesting that managing these environments for biodiversity may simultaneously support aesthetic, educational and well-being benefits. Nevertheless, the sensitivity of responses to the facet of biodiversity and viewing scale in our results underlines the context dependency and complexity of people's perceptions of urban environments.

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The qualities of natural environments that support the rehabilitation process of individuals with stress-related mental disorder in nature-based rehabilitation

Abstract: Grahn. (2018) The qualities of natural environments that support the rehabilitation process of individuals with stress-related mental disorder in nature-based rehabilitation.

Cited by 63 publications

References 35 publications

Enhancing Disaster Resilience by Reducing Stress-Associated Health Impacts

Enhancing Disaster Resilience by Reducing Stress-Associated Health Impacts

Salutogenic Affordances and Sustainability: Multiple Benefits With Edible Forest Gardens in Urban Green Spaces

Species diversity enhances perceptions of urban coastlines at multiple scales

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