Tasmania’s great outdoors might hold the key to improving health outcomes.
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The therapeutic benefits of the state’s outdoor spaces will be the focus of a new health and wellbeing movement led by the University of Tasmania.
A newly formed Therapeutic Landscape Research collective came together for the first time on Monday to scope projects aimed at improving Tasmania’s health outcomes.
Centre for Rural Health researcher and lecturer Dr Pauline Marsh said Tasmania was an ideal state to be studying the concept.
“The inter-relationships between natural environments, people's health and subjective wellbeing is of growing interest among researchers and health and industry practitioners alike,” Dr Marsh said.
“The abundant green spaces and natural assets of our ‘clean and green state’ provide great opportunities for nature-based policies and initiatives to improve health and wellbeing.”
Monday’s workshop brought together university representatives from health, environmental studies, urban design, geography and fine arts disciplines.
Dr Marsh said she hoped the collective would form a starting point for future evidence informed projects, but said the message needed to translate into policy.
“Interestingly in Tasmania, we know we have significantly poorer health outcomes than the rest of Australia, but ironically we have all of this nature and ready-made access to parks and natural spaces,” she said.
“That being said people do face a range of difficulties, particularly in rural and remote areas and that is where the focus needs to be. There are still many health barriers facing people.
“This [collective] is a real starting point that we would like to broaden and expand to include community organisations, industry and the policy makers.
“We want to see research-based evidence brought to the forefront of mainstream decision making.”
The Therapeutic Landscape Research collective is supported by funding from the University’s College of Health and Medicine.
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