A Canadian program called PaRx Connectors is pairing healthcare providers with nature professionals to help patients act on nature prescriptions, part of a wider push in Canada and the United States to treat time outdoors as a health tool. The BC Parks Foundation, which announced the effort on Oct. 31, says the goal is making outdoor time doable and sustainable, not just recommended.
How does a nature prescription work?
PaRx is Canada's national nature prescription program. Doctors write recommendations for time outdoors, but writing the prescription is only the first step. Dr. Owen Wiseman, an Ottawa primary care provider, said he can explain why nature might help and suggest places to go, but a Connector answers the next question: how to make it stick.
Connectors are qualified nature professionals, including forest therapy guides and horticultural therapists. Horticultural therapy uses plants and gardening to support physical, mental and emotional health. According to Guinevere Kern, a registered horticultural therapist, there are fewer than 50 such therapists in Canada.
What evidence sits behind the idea?
Wiseman described a young patient with anxiety and depression who felt most at ease near a stream by his home. Visits there became part of his care, and Wiseman saw improvements in mood, daily functioning and school engagement, with medication later reduced. Wiseman cautioned that the whole trajectory cannot be credited to one intervention.
Other institutions are testing similar ground. Otterbein University in Ohio cites research that even five minutes outdoors can lift mood and reduce stress, and it joined Campus Nature Rx, a coalition of more than 110 colleges and universities. In Leicester, England, a hospital garden program offers mindfulness and green therapy to cancer and cardiac patients.
What happens next?
In the U.S., the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable convened health systems, land managers and federal officials at Lake Tahoe in late October to discuss outdoor access as a public health solution. Discussions included insurance reimbursement pathways for nature-based interventions, though no decisions were reported.
FAQ
Who can become a PaRx Connector?
Connectors are qualified nature professionals such as forest therapy guides and horticultural therapists who help patients carry out nature prescriptions.
Is a nature prescription a substitute for medical care?
No. It is described as a complement to clinical treatment, and Wiseman said one intervention alone cannot explain a patient's recovery.
