Get a Prescription to Nature for Better Mental HealthGet a Prescription to Nature for Better Mental Health
Life Unscripted - Stories of Mental Health and Addiction
Janice Arnoldi talks with Dr Melissa Lem about prescribing time in nature to support mental and physical health. They discuss research-backed guidelines, accessible ways to connect with green spaces, and how gentle outdoor time may ease seasonal mood changes.
22:49•21 Jul 2026
Writing a Prescription for Nature: Dr Melissa Lem on Mental Health and Green Time
Episode Overview
- Nature prescriptions in Canada recommend at least 120 minutes a week outdoors, in 20-minute or longer sessions, to maximise health and stress-reduction benefits.
- Regulated health professionals, including doctors, nurses, psychologists and others, can formally prescribe nature time to patients with a wide range of conditions.
- A meaningful nature experience can be as simple as street trees, a houseplant, nature sounds or indoor nature-themed spaces, especially for those with limited mobility.
- Prescribers are encouraged to model the behaviour, make nature a fourth pillar of health alongside diet, exercise and sleep, and help patients schedule it like any appointment.
- Gentle, shaded time in nature may help ease summer seasonal affective disorder, though severe symptoms should be discussed with a health professional.
“The evidence base indicates there's almost no health condition that nature isn't good for.”
Get ready to be moved by real-life accounts of how simple time outdoors can shift mental health. This conversation between host Janice Arnoldi and family physician Dr Melissa Lem centres on a surprisingly powerful idea: getting an actual prescription for nature. You’ll hear Dr Lem share how growing up as a racialised child in suburban Toronto, often facing bullying and racism, left her feeling disconnected from her community.
Her sense of belonging came from her dad’s huge vegetable garden, fruit trees, nearby parks, and camping trips with her large family. That early comfort in green spaces eventually shaped her medical practice and her work co-founding PARX, Canada’s national nature prescribing programme.
Janice and Dr Lem talk through how nature prescriptions work: regulated health professionals across Canada can formally prescribe time in nature, with a standard guideline of at least 120 minutes a week, in chunks of 20 minutes or more.
Dr Lem explains that research shows stress hormone levels drop most between the 20–30 minute mark, and she notes, "The evidence base indicates there's almost no health condition that nature isn't good for." The episode stresses that "nature" doesn’t have to mean a remote forest hike.
A meaningful experience might be three street trees outside your window, a cherished houseplant on your desk, listening to birdsong, or visiting an indoor nature-inspired gallery or museum, especially for people with mobility or access issues. Personalisation and follow-up are key: prescribers are urged to walk the walk themselves, make nature a fourth pillar of health alongside diet, exercise, and sleep, help patients schedule it like any other appointment, and check back on how they’re getting on.
They also touch on summer seasonal affective disorder and how gentle, shaded time outdoors can ease mood dips. If spending more time with trees, plants, and parks could support your mental health or recovery, this episode might nudge you to ask: what kind of nature prescription would actually fit your life?
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