Dr. Carole Myers
Welcome to HealthConnections, the show about people, health, and policy. I'm Dr. Carole Myers. Contact with the outdoors, including green spaces such as parks and forests, and blue spaces, lakes, and rivers, have been shown to enhance mental health. Today, I'm joined by Bruce Guillaume, the founder of Mountain Challenge and Fit Green Happy Programs, based at Maryville College, to discuss the outdoors as medicine. Welcome to Health Connections, Bruce.
Bruce Guillaume
Well, thank you, Carole. Happy to be here.
Mental health problems are a troubling contemporary societal problem. From your perspective, what are the major issues associated with mental health today?
For me, I think there are two links. Basically, one is the fact that mental health issues very seldom happen in isolations. They're linked to everything, physical health, mental health, for example, and the fact that there are what I call pretty strong headwinds - things like the volume of screen time, the need for relationships, and that sort of thing,
And they're impairing our mental health?
Absolutely.
What is your assessment of contemporary treatment options for the mental health problems that we're seeing?
Well, at all levels, we are pouring plenty of resources into the mental health bucket. I would also say a thing that doesn't get a lot of attention is the whole idea of, in spite of all the resources going into the top of the bucket, there are some pretty significant holes in the bottom of the bucket with healthcare, mental health care providers.
What are those holes?
In the field of social work? About 60% of social workers one year post program and training report being frustrated, tired, angry, and those are just symptoms for burnout.
Bruce, you're a proponent of the idea of the outdoors as medicine. Can you say more about this concept, please?
Well, the verdict is in. Being outdoors is good for humans. Who knew? We've been hearing that for a long time, but now it is now a primary mental health treatment intervention. That sounds so simple, and it is simple, but we shouldn't confuse that as being easy. So tell
So tell us what it entails.
Well, there are some criteria that go with this. The ideal amount of time outside is a minimum of 20 minutes to sort of allow brain chemistry resets, and the upper limit is whatever you'd like it to be. Ideally, the people should understand there's a difference between outside and outdoors, and that has to do with sensory engagement. So the more we can be in places that we hear nature as opposed to human-based sounds, the better it is. The more active or the more movement people do in the outdoors is exponentially better. Again, what's old is new. It is more effective for you to direct what you do outside, as opposed to a coach, a boss, a teacher. There used to be a pretty simple name for this idea of self-directed outdoor activity, which is called play or recess.
You talked about duration. What sort of frequency are we talking about when we talk about the outdoors as medicine?
If you think weekly, we tend to say about 180 minutes. If you can do that, 20 minutes at a time.
This is Dr. Carole Myers, joined today by Bruce Guillaume, a champion of programs that promote healthy lifestyles in a healthy environment. Thank you for listening to HealthConnections. All past episodes are available at WUOT dot org.
