Healing Needs Nature: Bring the Forest to Your City
“20 minutes in nature every day.”
This isn’t hypothetical. Across Canada, physicians are increasingly prescribing time in nature as a legitimate and evidence-based form of care. It’s part of PaRx, the country’s first national nature prescription program, launched by Women for Nature member Dr. Melissa Lem, a family doctor in British Columbia.
And the science is compelling. Just 20 minutes in a natural setting; whether that’s a walk through a local park, sitting under a tree, or watching birds near a river—can reduce stress hormones, improve mood, lower blood pressure, and boost focus. Even brief, low-effort exposure to green space can have a meaningful impact.
It’s a growing movement across the country! More than 10,000 healthcare providers are now incorporating nature prescriptions into their practice, helping patients reconnect with the outdoors in small, meaningful ways.
But What If You Can’t Get to Nature?
While some of us are lucky enough to have parks or forests nearby, many patients, especially those in dense urban neighborhoods, don’t have easy access to green space. In my inner-city practice, most patients can’t realistically follow a nature prescription. The barriers are real: time, mobility, safety, transportation.
So instead of asking patients to go to nature, we’re asking a different question: What if we brought nature to them?
By planting trees and creating green spaces around hospitals, long-term care homes, and clinics, we can transform concrete into calm. These small patches of nature become places of rest for patients, families, and even the staff caring for them. They offer shade on hot days, quiet in stressful moments, and a gentle reminder that healing doesn’t only happen inside a building.
And beyond beauty, trees do real work. They clean the air, cool the city, and help fight climate change by absorbing carbon. In every sense, they help communities breathe a little easier.
Real change by real people
Organizations such as Trees for Hamilton and the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care are actively coordinating tree plantings and encouraging medical communities to bring more nature to their sites, and their cities.
Trees for Hamilton, a local volunteer-run charity has planted trees at hospitals, long-term care facilities, and clinics, as well as adjacent parks, over the last 14 years. We have also focused on inner city plantings to decrease the heat island effect. This means patients and people living in this urban area don’t need a bus or a car to experience the forest. Already 90 community planting events have been done as we work toward bringing 30 per cent tree coverage to Hamilton.
Even more trees are being planted at healthcare facilities across Canada through the Coalition for Green Health Care. The Coalition, and its partners, have helped plant more than 2,500 trees at more than 50 different healthcare sites in the past 3 years. As interest grows, more requests have been made for support in creating larger green spaces or gardens, leading to the Coalition introducing the ‘Canadian Health Care Forests.’ This initiative includes creating spaces with a diverse mix of trees, plants and re-wilding options, focusing on traditional and native plants.
We are also encouraging and empowering physicians to bring nature to their community clinics. At the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care we have created a special guide, the Green Office Tookit, with details on how to make clinics more sustainable, including planting at least one tree or shrub every year, and considering adding a pollinator garden.
Want to Help?
Connect your local hospital or clinic to the growing movement for green health care. By advocating for more trees, gardens, and green spaces around medical buildings, you’re helping ensure that everyone in the community can access the healing power of nature.
