It's Time for Doctors to Prescribe Outdoor Therapy

[FLPanhandle]

http://www.outsideonline.com/2127271/time-for-doctors-prescribe-outdoor-therapy

When Stacy Bare returned from his deployment to Baghdad in 2006, he struggled with a host of problems: alcoholism, a cocaine habit, and suicidal thoughts, to name a few. It wasn’t until 2010, when a fellow veteran took him rock climbing on First Flatiron, in Boulder, Colorado, that things began to turn around. “If I hadn’t started climbing, I’d probably be another sad statistic,” says Bare. “The focus it gave me let me leave my troubles on the ground.”


He thought that if there were enough scientific studies that put adventure therapy on par with pharmaceutical treatments, doctors would start prescribing it as a cheaper, safer alternative. Physician-recommended outdoor recreation, says the 38-year-old Bare, who is now the director of Sierra Club Outdoors, would result in less depen­dence on medications and lower health care costs. He also hopes that it might usher in a time when “you can use a prescription copay to cover the price of guides and specific gear.”

In 2013, Bare partnered with University of California at Berkeley psychologist Dacher Keltner to found the Great Outdoor Lab, a think tank with the goal of researching and ultimately proving the health benefits of being outside. Bare hopes the studies will establish nature as a viable therapy for a range of ailments, from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder to traumatic brain injury and dementia. More important, he wants to establish credibility with the mainstream medical community and insurance companies.


In 2014, Bare convinced Keltner to take his studies into the field, running two-day rafting trips on California’s American River with Sierra Club youth and veterans groups. Bare chose rafting because it’s an immersive outdoor experience without a high fitness requirement. “It’s important for the study to isolate the effects of outdoor adventure from the effects of exercise,” says Bare. “We have to hold our research to the same standard as a pharmaceutical company.”

The three-year study, currently under review by several academic journals, corroborated Keltner’s lab findings and showed that veterans experienced a 35 percent decrease of PTSD symptoms after a single two-day rafting trip. “We have pharmaceutical solutions for health problems that can be solved by the great outdoors,” says Keltner. Bare describes one vet who took up kayaking and reduced the amount the Department of Veterans Affairs was paying for his medication from $25,000 per year to $5,000.

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Interesting article and aligns with my personal viewpoint (note: I'm well aware of my own inclination to confirmation bias here).