Gregory Bratman has stepped up to become our new director. He is also the director of the Environment and Well-Being Lab, a Senior JPB Harvard Environmental Health Fellow, and the Doug Walker Endowed Professor.
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This panel session described the ways in which mental health and the natural world are related. It began with brief framing remarks from the moderator, noting how time spent in nature is a protective factor for mental health, before segueing into two sets of panel discussions that touch on how climate change is affecting our mental health.
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This page providing resources for connecting with nature around the UW was created as a collaboration with UW Sustainability, UW Nature & Health, and the UW Sustainability Action Plan’s Engagement working group.
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Robin Tricoles · BrainFacts · July 24, 2023
Interview with Peter Kahn, Nature and Health researcher and Steering Committee member
Most people are familiar with amnesia, the inability to recall events that happen before or after a significant incident, such as a head injury.
Meghan Bartels · Scientific American · July 14, 2023
Featuring Gregory Bratman, Nature and Health researcher and Steering Committee member
For decades, scientists have been exploring how exposing humans to nature—by planting trees along urban streets, visiting forests or even just growing houseplants—may improve physical and psychological health.
Nalini Nadkarni, a Nature and Health researcher and Nature and Health Alliance member, is featured in The Salt Lake Tribune. In this piece, Nalini highlights how emerging cross-disciplinary collaborations are unlocking new findings in the field of nature and health.
Read moreThe Picower Institute · May 18, 2023
Featuring Gregory Bratman, Nature and Health researcher and Steering Committee member
Threats to lifelong mental health can arise for young children from sources including poverty, abuse or neglect at home and racism, inequity and pollution outside their doors, but the hopeful message that a range of experts brought to MIT May 11 was that amid these many risks, approaches to provide effective protections and remedies are numerous and growing.
Threats to lifelong mental health can arise for young children from sources including poverty, abuse or neglect, racism, inequity, and pollution. On May 11, 15 neuroscientists, physicians, psychologists, public health researchers, and advocates came together to discuss new research and solutions to children’s mental health challenges during a daylong “Environmental and Social Determinants of Child Mental Health,” symposium hosted by MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory and The JPB Foundation.
Read more at MIT News
Interest in the new frontier of nature-informed mental health has amplified in recent years. Nature-informed (psycho)therapy explores nature-based methods of psychological healing, grounded in the belief that the natural world has profound mental health benefits, especially for anxiety and stress related challenges.
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Through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden-Harris Administration is taking aggressive action to conserve and restore nature, provide communities the tools they need to be resilient, and tackle the climate crisis.
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