Making nature environments digitally accessible in social and health care

Could you provide a brief overview of your project – what are the main objectives and expected outcomes?

'NATUREACH-project (website here) is a great example of making nature environments accessible to client groups with physical or psychological restrictions and other vulnerabilities that cause limited access to outdoor nature.

The main goal of the project is to improve human health and well-being by developing new digital nature-based service models for social and health care. Our project responds to the existing needs and increasing interest in including nature-based methods to care services by combining VR-technology, multidisciplinary research and the competence of care units and nature- and media entrepreneurs. The virtual nature-based interventions have been co-designed for five different client groups in Northern Sweden and Finland: clients with developmental disabilities, patients with eating disorder, patients in palliative care, patients with diabetes type 2, and clients in elderly care. The virtual nature interventions will aim to generate the best possible restorative and rehabilitative effects for each client group but also aim to support the occupational health by offering easily used recharge-tools for care professionals to reduce stress-related symptoms and to support recovery during and after their demanding work shifts.

Our multidisciplinary joint Nordic research team collects and analyses data on client groups by using a variety of physiological and psychological measurement methods. The preliminary results already show that the use of virtual nature has helped the clients to e.g. calm down and reduce anxiety, but also the staff members to reduce stress levels during the working day and speed up recovery after the work shifts.

The project will also explore which kind of virtual nature environments are best suited to respective client groups. Together with SLU’s researchers Ann Dolling, Elisabet Bohlin and Anna María Palsdottír we focus our research on the features and factors that create restorative and health-promoting places and analyse how our client groups are observing natural elements within different environments.

In addition to the research data on the impact of the interventions on their clients, the social and health care service providers get first-hand experiences and increase their knowledge in working with VR equipment and nature-based interventions. The video materials, VR manuals and handbook being developed in the project will be published in December 2025, which hopefully encourages the wider use of virtual nature in care services and health promotion.'   

How does the research relate to the One Health concept?

'Due to the strong interdependency between human well-being and the state of nature environments and biodiversity, our actions must be eco-socially sustainable to be able to maintain the ecosystem services and pursue planetary health and well-being in the long term.

Although encouraging people to seek out to the health-promoting nature environments, the sensitive ecological balance of many restorative and unique nature areas cannot withstand the masses of visitors and land use connected with nature tourism. In NATUREACH -project we aim to minimize the negative environmental impact that nature-based activities can cause, as the consumption of natural resources and emissions from the nature interventions stay lower when clients are not transported on site locations several times as nature experiences are transmitted digitally.'

What do you consider the key challenges and opportunities in your research area in relation to nature connected to mental health and wellbeing.

Alongside institutional and pharmaceutical therapies, there is a growing interest to include nature-based methods in the mental health services. Previous studies have shown that nature-based interventions suite well as a complementary treatment in many psychiatric diseases, as well as in promotion and maintenance of mental health and well-being.

The Eating disorder team in Psychiatry Outpatient Clinic at Vaasa Central hospital is one of our pilot groups in NATUREACH, but we are studying mood, stress levels and other factors combined to psychological well-being also amongst our other client groups in the project.

As another project example, our latest regional Green Care project in Ostrobothnia indicated that nature-based group activities had a clear impact on mental health promotion amongst adult client groups (Project report in Swedish).

However, more client pilots and research combining nature-based interventions with psychiatric treatment as well as in mental health rehabilitation are still needed to provide more research data and further verification that could motivate including nature-based interventions into treatment recommendations and work practices.

As we share many similar challenges but also opportunities regarding nature and health issues in Nordic countries, we could collaborate even more in research but also in the strategic level programmes.

NATUREACH -project (2023-2025) is co-funded by the European Union - Interreg Aurora Programme.

Text: Martta Ylilauri, project manager, M.Sc. (Agriculture and Forestry), Lic.Sc. (Admin.), University of Vaasa, Finland.