The Venture Out Nature Hubs
Connecting with nature to live well with dementia.
Having healthy relationships with others and the natural world around us is vital to life satisfaction. However, many older people and people living with dementia, and care-partners, are isolated. The aim of the Venture Out Nature Hubs project is to boost nature connection to improve quality of life – especially for people living with dementia and their care partners.
What is a Nature Hub?
The Nature Hubs will be dementia-inclusive outdoor spaces - enabling environments that provide nature-based psycho-social support. Hubs will be located across a range of existing community green spaces, and in a variety of outdoor environments. They will be suitable for people living with dementia, care-partners, dementia advocates and support workers, students and community members, supporting and enabling greater health and wellbeing.
Why nature?
Living with dementia can be very isolating – from people and from nature. Connecting with nature improves our physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual and cognitive wellbeing. Being in contact with nature improves our quality of life. Nothing could be truer than this for people experiencing the cognitive disruptions and challenges of dementia. Table 1 (below) summarises the benefits.
Table 1: Benefits of nature connection and relevance to quality of life while living with dementia.
| Nature Connection benefits | Relevance for dementia symptoms and quality of life |
|---|---|
Increased physical activity | improves activities of daily living and health-related physical fitness, reduces changed behaviors and risk of chronic disease and falls, delays cognitive functional decline |
| Increased social connectivity | less loneliness and isolation |
| Lowered stress levels | greater happiness and life satisfaction, improved stress recovery |
| Improved mindful attention | better able to focus and concentrate |
| Opportunity for meaningful occupation | increased sense of purpose and autonomy |
| Experiences of peace and beauty | decreased cognitive load |
| Place-making | a sense of meaning and belonging |
Even for people living with dementia or mild cognitive impairment who have a deep appreciation of nature and the outdoors, there are multiple barriers that impede access to nature (e.g., anxiety about falls, getting lost; risk aversion among care partners; lack of dementia awareness among green space providers). Connection to nature is variously affected by access, engagement and exposure factors, as well as environmental quality concerns. Willingness and confidence to access outdoor green spaces can be directly impacted by neurocognitive disorder symptoms (e.g., memory loss, disorientation, confusion, anxiety), resulting in an increasingly ‘shrinking world’. Such barriers can be overcome by providing supported engagement with green spaces that builds upon existing community nature-based initiatives (Figure 1 below).
What research is involved?
The Nature Hubs are part of a Living Lab research design which aims to:
- create sustainable dementia-inclusive, enabling outdoor environments across Tasmania;
- form a community of practice that improves access to green spaces for people living with dementia, their care partners and support workers; and
- embed a long-term research project that identifies the benefits of supported nature connection on quality of life and care-partner burdens.
Figure 1: The Nature Hub rationale
How does my green space become a Nature Hub?
In preparation for the Nature Hubs roll out, the Venture Out Research Team at Wicking have commenced a co-design consultation process with community stakeholders and dementia advocates. This has resulted in the establishment of a Community of Practice, an advisory group and committed Dementia Advocates. Together we have developed the Hub criteria:
- Nature Hub hosts commit to undertaking education in dementia experience and outdoor health
- Sites undergo a site assessment process, and address any improvements or changes that are necessary to create enabling environments
- An MOU with the UTAS Wicking Centre is established
- Nature Hubs commit to hosting people over 3-month periods, providing access and support to participate in the activities associated with the site (gardening, landcare, bird watching etc). People will be supported to engage in nature-based activities of their choosing.
- The Venture Out Research Team provides ongoing support with education, site assessment, recruitment and evaluation
- Participants in the Hub activities may opt in to dementia-inclusive research activities, that may include surveys, interviews and creative journalling. Impacts on quality of life and wellbeing will be explored.
We will use films and storytelling to inform others and help transform communities so that everyone can participate and live well. Please get in touch with us if you would like to be involved in any way:
Pauline Marsh
venture.out@utas.edu.au
6226 6905
The team:
We are a team of interdisciplinary dementia studies researchers, and together we bring a wealth of experience and expertise not only in research but also in community engagement and lived experience to this project.
Pauline Marsh
Dr Marsh is an interdisciplinary health geographer with the Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre. Her collaborative research projects have generated new knowledges about the nuanced intersections between age, dementia, mental ill health, disability, death and grief with the natural environment around us. Alongside traditional academic outputs, she has produced short films, industry pieces, and practical guides for health workers. Pauline is co-lead of the Wicking Venture Out nature-based dementia research group and chief investigator on the Nature Connection Story telling Project. She is a co-founder of the DIGnity supported community gardening program, and the Tasmanian representative for Outdoor Health Australia. Pauline is a bee keeper, a keen gardener and is highly motivated to improve opportunities for people living with dementia to stay connected with nature.
Hoang Nguyen
Dr Hoang Nguyen is a lecturer at the Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre, University of Tasmania. She obtained her PhD in 2013 and has been active in research since then in the areas of higher education curriculum and pedagogy, rural and community health, and aged and dementia care. Her current interests are in communication and engagement with people with dementia, and different psychosocial interventions that aim to improve their quality of life. She is well-versed in both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, and skilled in using mixed methods in observational and evaluation studies, having participated as either a lead or co-investigator in projects that explored perceptions and experiences of different community groups, evaluated intervention impacts, or validated research tools.
Joanna Sun
Dr. Sun is an environmental gerontologist with 16 years of experience in the aged care industry in Australia, Singapore, Japan, and Germany. Her research focuses on the relationship between dementia and the environment, and she is the co-author of a Singapore environmental assessment tool used to assess high-care environments for Singaporeans living with dementia. She lectures on dementia design, as well as aged and dementia care. Dr. Sun has been involved in local and international projects in the areas of dementia service development, dementia-friendly communities, training, and education. She is also a part of the Dementia Alliance International Environmental Special Interest Group Steering Committee.
Cassandra Thomson
Dr Thomson is an early-career researcher, lecturer and clinical psychologist with a focus in geropsychology and dementia. She has experience conducting mixed-methods research and psychological therapy with people living with neurological and neurodegenerative conditions (dementia, Parkinson’s disease, acquired brain injury) and their care partners. She has experience working within multidisciplinary teams across varied settings including inpatient adult psychiatry, outpatient older adult mental health, community-based neurorehabilitation, and residential aged care. Her in-depth knowledge of the cognitive, biological, emotional, and social aspects of ageing and brain disease will inform the overall program design and ensure it addresses the specific needs and challenges of people living with mild cognitive impairment, dementia and their care partners.
