Can outdoor adventures like surfing, hiking, and spending time with horses boost mental health? That's what a group of healthcare professionals wants to find out.
Key points:
- Research aims to discover the impact of outdoor adventure activities on mental and physical health and community engagement
- The four-month program involves hikes, equine therapy, and surf lessons
- Participants will also develop custom community engagement action plans, like participating in local clubs
Twelve Southern Grampians residents will get the chance to spend four months participating in outdoor adventure activities — all in the name of science.
The new research initiative by Western District Health Service (WDHS) aims to boost community engagement and improve physical and mental health outcomes.
WDHS mental health team leader Philip Wilson, who is leading the Reset Project, said the work "came out of the COVID-19 period".
"There was a very obvious decline in people engaging with each other and a very obvious increase in anxieties and mood-related issues," Mr Wilson said.
He believed a lack of engagement was still evident in the community.
Organisation Ending Loneliness Together described loneliness as a "significant growing public health concern" even before the pandemic.
One in four Australians aged between 12 and 89 reported problematic levels of loneliness in 2018 and 2019 surveys.
Lonelier individuals are at an increased risk of having a clinically diagnosed mental disorder and experience higher mortality rates.
The 2022 Household Income and Labour Dynamic in Australia (HILDA) survey reported a decline in average social contact frequency of about 11 per cent between 2001 and 2020.
It also showed "being in poor general and mental health is associated with less social support".
Mr Wilson said the Reset Project was "looking at creating a positive change that counters that".
Over a four-month period, a group of Southern Grampians Shire residents aged between 18 and 65 years will participate in a range of outdoor activities including equine therapy and surf lessons.
"And once a month the group will take on the Grampians Peaks Trail for a weekend," Mr Wilson said.
He said the community engagement element of the study would come in later.
"Once we're feeling a bit more comfortable in ourselves, then we tend to be able to reach out and support others around us. So at that point, we'll start implementing a community health program that will be different for each individual," he said.
"Someone might be wanting to take on learning about their neighbours or their neighbourhood, somebody else might be wanting to get back into a club they were doing prior to COVID."
Mr Wilson's passion for "nature-based activities and its benefits to people's health" inspired the program's development.
"It's kind of a combination of my background in outdoor education and seeing the benefits in that space, and my training as a psychologist as an overlap," he said.
He hoped positive results, including increased community engagement and improved physical and mental health, would lead to funding for an ongoing program, possibly targeting specific user groups.
"Whether it be people living with diabetes ... a social anxiety group, I even thought about a suicide prevention group," Mr Wilson said.
"As a health service, we are quite mindful that we do a lot of tertiary health and practices, and this is looking at being a bit more open to alternative therapies."
The Reset Project will kick off in February, with results to be evaluated by the National Centre of Farmer's Health.