Nature, mental health and well-being
Project leader: Dr Tessa Lomax, Academic Clinical Fellow
Tessa is looking at the current evidence around the impact of ‘nature’ on the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents by undertaking a ‘meta-review’. This involves looking at the best quality evidence (namely systematic reviews) and combining them to help answer this question.
Interest in this area of research, looking at how nature affects one’s mental health and well-being, has exponentially increased in interest recently. Whether this is due to cultural factors, such as being more aware of the importance of our natural world with climate change, or seeing the impact of COVID on those with no or little access to green space, is unclear. However, researchers from all kinds of different fields are looking into this.
Tessa wanted to look at the current evidence:
- to try and make some meaningful conclusions to help inform policy and practice, and
- provide evidence as to the potential importance of the natural world, to us and our mental health and well-being.
Tessa's is a very heterogeneous field of research and trying to understand just what we mean by ‘nature’ or ‘mental health and well-being’ is indeed a big part of the project. Although this brings challenges it is exciting and inspiring to investigate the importance of our natural world and how much we are intertwined with it for mental and physical well-being.
January 2023