{"id":30877,"date":"2025-11-01T13:17:46","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T07:32:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/?p=30877"},"modified":"2025-11-01T13:39:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T07:54:19","slug":"nature-therapy-integrated-in-clinical-health-care-could-boost-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/nature-therapy-integrated-in-clinical-health-care-could-boost-mental-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Nature therapy integrated in clinical health care could boost mental health"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Integrating nature-based therapies into clinical health care could help to address global declines in mental health, a Griffith University study published in Nature Mental Health<\/em> has found. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With global rates of stress, anxiety and depression continuing to rise, researchers found the delivery of nature-guided experiences through existing healthcare frameworks would offer a scalable, evidence-based solution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lead author Professor Emeritus Ralf Buckley from the School of Environment and Science said the mental health benefits of exposure to nature were well documented, but access remained limited. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNature-based therapies are not currently funded anywhere in the world as a national-scale response to poor mental health,\u201d Professor Buckley said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor those who could benefit, barriers such as cost, mobility, distance, and psychological challenges often prevent access, and these could be overcome by embedding nature therapy into clinical healthcare. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvidence shows one-third of urban residents in developed nations and two-thirds in newly industrialised countries never visit national parks.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Co-author Professor Paula Brough from the Centre for Work, Organisation and Wellbeing said the findings make a case for nature-based clinical mental healthcare to sit alongside existing treatments such as medication and counselling under the banner of occupational therapy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOccupational therapy is a well-established allied health profession, supported by current funding and regulatory frameworks, and it could provide a practical pathway for individuals with clinically diagnosed mental health conditions to engage in nature-based therapy,\u201d Professor Brough said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvidence shows exposure to nature improves mental health conditions, but nature experiences designed to improve mental health are not yet incorporated in regulated clinical healthcare. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNature-based treatment requires multiple hours of exposure on a regular basis, and sessions are typically guided by a therapist or facilitator, conducted in small groups, for several hours each week over a sustained period.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The paper \u2018Occupational therapy as an allied health avenue for clinical nature-based mental healthcare\u2019<\/a> has been published in Nature Mental Health.<\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Integrating nature-based therapies into clinical health care could help to address global declines in mental health, a Griffith University study published in\u00a0Nature Mental Health\u00a0has found.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-medicine","category-health"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/natural-therapy.webp",640,448,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/natural-therapy-200x200.webp",200,200,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/natural-therapy.webp",640,448,false],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/natural-therapy.webp",640,448,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/natural-therapy.webp",640,448,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/natural-therapy.webp",640,448,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/natural-therapy.webp",640,448,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/natural-therapy.webp",640,448,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/natural-therapy.webp",640,448,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/natural-therapy-600x448.webp",600,448,true],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/natural-therapy-600x448.webp",600,448,true],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/natural-therapy.webp",640,448,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/natural-therapy-550x360.webp",550,360,true],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/natural-therapy-95x65.webp",95,65,true],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/natural-therapy.webp",640,448,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/natural-therapy-96x96.webp",96,96,true],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/natural-therapy-150x105.webp",150,105,true]},"author_info":{"info":["RevoScience"]},"category_info":"Medicine<\/a> Health<\/a>","tag_info":"Health","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30877"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30880,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30877\/revisions\/30880"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}