Connecting with nature, here’s how

PaRx Connector Beth Foster from Barrie discusses nature-based prescriptions and how people can make use of them.

A light stroll through nature could be just what the doctor orders.

So you’ve received a nature prescription, but now what?

While healthcare professionals have been able to write a prescription for their patients for time outdoors since 2020 with PaRx prescriptions, the bridge to connect the two just launched in March.

Beth Foster has been a nature and forest therapy guide and trail certification consultant for 40 years, but since March she’s become what’s called a PaRx connector, someone to help people follow through with their nature prescriptions.

PaRx prescriptions, Canada’s national prescriptions-based, evidence-based, prescription program, since its launch in 2020, more than 20,000 health professionals have signed up to write green prescriptions for their patients, according to Foster. And more than a million prescriptions have been prescribed.

“The gap, they discovered, was people were getting written prescriptions but they didn’t know what to do,” said Foster.

That’s where the connector program comes in.

Foster said she introduces people to slow, mindful time in the woods, where they can connect with nature through all their senses.

She stressed the most important part of the program is to disconnect from technology.

“People ask, ‘can I go scroll on a picnic bench?’ – well, that doesn’t work as well,” said Foster.

Instead, she said she might invite people to touch, feel and smell cedar, for example, all during a slow walk through the woods.

Foster also started a small business in 2018, Forest Bathing with Beth, where she guides people on walks and works with municipalities, private clients, corporate clients, health-based institutions, and other places where people see connections between nature and well-being.

Upcoming free forest walks

There are a couple of free forest walks coming up in the region to celebrate Earth week.

On Wednesday in Copeland Forest in Oro-Medonte from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m., Foster will be guiding people on an introductory forest bathing walk where guests are invited to walk slowly, take in the smells, lean against trees and listen to the birds. Foster emphasizes the event is an inclusive one with the walk being short and slow. Participants are asked to meet at P2 Copeland Forest Parking on Ingram Road.

More details can be found here.

On Friday, the City of Barrie is putting on a walk through Sunnidale Park. Participants are asked to meet at the mural on the Dorian Parker Centre at 1:25 p.m. The walk will run from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Registration can be completed online.