Effect of the Outdoors on Mental Health

Effect of the Outdoors on Mental Health Topic: Mental Health Big Ideas Overview Mental health disorders are known to affect most people at some point in their lives (Government Office of Science London 2008, as cited in Barton 2010). Indeed, rates of depression and other psychological illnesses (e.g. anxiety, etc.) are predicted to increase in the future (Maller et al. 2005, as cited in DFH 2008). Over the past several decades, research has shown that contact with nature aids mental health and restoration. Mental health improvements resulting from exposure to natural environments include increased positive emotions and mood, decreased negative emotions and stress, and increased mental balance, energy, and revitalization. Systematic literature reviews conducted in the past five years continue to show a consistent beneficial relationship between exposure to green, natural environments and mental health. Environmental contexts examined in these studies varied from urban to rural, and compared natural and synthetic environments. Exposure to natural environments might include exercising in natural environments, being within a natural place, or even looking at a view of trees from a window. For example, in a hospital, views of nature are associated with a faster recovery, decreased painkiller use, shorter hospital stays and fewer postoperative complications (Dijkstra 2006). Outdoor space and views at a workplace is associated with decreased stress (Singhal, Paney and Pandy 2013). Regular interaction with nature is connected to lengthened lifespan and decreased risk of mental health illnesses in seniors living in megacities (Takano 2002, as cited in Barton 2010). There is also mixed evidence that exercising outdoors in natural environments could have mental and physical benefits above and beyond exercising indoors. Green exercise for as little as 5 minutes has been shown to improve self-esteem and mood (Barton 2010). There is some evidence that people enjoy exercising outdoors more than indoors, and have a greater intention to repeat the activity, and improvement in social connections (Coon et al 2011). If exercising outdoors is more likely to be maintained in the long term, then motivating people to be active outdoors (e.g. gardening, walking, and biking) could be an important means of staying active. If exposure to outdoor green spaces has immediate positive mental health outcomes, then inaccessibility to such spaces could promote health inequalities. Given the associations between mental health and proximity to green spaces, there is an inherent opportunity for planning and designing both public and private open space. What the Research Says Things for Certain (or semi-Certain) Exposure to green outdoor spaces improves mental health. Examples: Barton and Pretty, 2010: The article concluded that exposure to green has positive health impacts. Coon et. Al, 2011, 1762: â€Å"Experimental research has demonstrated that exposure to views of nature can improve people’s health and wellbeing by providing restoration from stress and mental fatigue,12† Design for Health, 2007, 1: â€Å"A strong research base has continued to demonstrate how direct contact with nature (water, trees, bushes, flowers, and other vegetation, whether cultivated or wild) leads to increased mental health and psychological development.† Lee, A.C.K., R. Maheswaran, 2010, 212: â€Å"Physical and psychological benefits have been linked to green spaces through their purported effects on physical activity.7 †¦It also improves mental functioning, mental health and wellbeing16– 22 and may have long-lasting psychological benefits.23 Benefits on longevity have also been reported.24† Even just a view of nature is beneficial to mental health. Examples: Design for Health, 2007: For example, in a hospital context views of nature are associated with a faster recovery, decreased painkiller use, shorter hospital stays and fewer post-operative complications. Since older persons use hospitals more, views of nature are especially relevant to this population. Dijkstra, 2006: Sunlight and views of nature out the window had positive effects on patients’ mental and physical health. Having a sunny window with a view of nature may have a positive impact on aging patients staying at healthcare facilities. It should be noted that some varied effects happened for patients with dementia or depression. Singhal, Paney and Pandy, 2013: Green space surrounding a work environment reduces stress and benefits mental health. This has been demonstrated consistently in the literature, and anecdotally in this article. Things up in the Air General significance for public health. Example: Bowler, 2012: Overall, the studies are suggestive that natural environments may have direct and positive impacts on well-being, but support the need for investment in further research on this question to understand the general significance for public health. If greater biodiversity in nature increases mental health benefits. Example: Dean, van Dooren and Weinstein, 2011, 878-879: â€Å"Based upon this review, we identified only one original research paper that directly investigated the link between biodiversity per se and mental health allowing the authors to specifically argue that their results ‘indicate that successful management of urban green spaces should emphasize biological complexity to enhance human well-being in addition to biodiversity conservation ([33, p. 390]).† How different user groups, subcultures and types of outdoor environments differ in impact. Example: Design for Health, 2007: â€Å"†¦ more limited knowledge on aspects of nature most relevant, maintenance importance, and different user groups/subcultures. Varied definitions and types of outdoor space make it difficult to compare studies.† Whether there is a causal relationship between green space and mental health. Example: Lee, 2010, 212: â€Å"Most studies reported findings that generally supported the view that green space have a beneficial health effect. Establishing a causal relationship is difficult, as the relationship is complex. Simplistic urban interventions may therefore fail to address the underlying determinants of urban health that are not remediable by landscape redesign.† If exercising outdoors (or with a view of nature) has mental and physical benefits above and beyond exercising indoors. Examples: Coon et al., 2011: found exercising outdoors did have greater mental and physical benefits above and beyond exercising indoors, whereas Lee 2010 found mixed results at best. Implications Standards Mental health benefits can come from very little exposure to natural spaces. Just a glimpse of green will do. Example: Design for Health, 2007, 5: â€Å"Working thresholds for HIA: Provide views of green spaces, with canopy trees, from all buildings. These can be trees at the street level or, for upper-level situations, views to parklands, etc. Tree densities with greater than 22 trees per acre have a positive effect in terms of presence and sense of safety in a population of low-income, public housing residents (Kuo et al., 1998, 45). This is not a very high density of trees.† As little as 5-minutes of activity outside is enough for mental health improvements. Example: Barton and Pretty, 2010: A quantifiable exposure to green was set as a threshold. As a result, greatest changes come from 5 min of activity, and thus suggest these psychological measures are immediately increased by green exercise. Insights Exercising outdoors may be easier to stick to than exercising indoors. Example: Coon et. Al, 2011, 1762: It might be argued that physical activity in health club gyms is a viable alternative to outdoor exercise, but the failure to persevere with indoor exercise initiatives on a long-term basis is well recognized. For example, 40-50% of individuals terminate gym membership within a year of joining.19 Anecdotal evidence suggests that long-term adherence to exercise initiatives conducted in outdoor natural environments or urban green spaces may be superior to that of indoor exercise interventions.20 Urban Chinese migrants have worse mental health than non-migrants. Example: Lin et al., 2011: Rural migrants in China’s cities experience more discrimination and this discrimination is connected to worse mental health. Sources Jo Barton and Jules Pretty, What is the Best Dose of Nature and Green Exercise for Improving  Mental Health? A Multi-Study Analysis, Environmental Science and Technology, 2010 May  15;44(10):3947-55. doi: 10.1021/es903183r. Bowler, Diana E., et al. A systematic review of evidence for the added benefits to health of  exposure to natural environments. BMC Public Health 10.1 (2010): 456. Coon, J. Thompson, K. Boddy, K. Stein, R. Whear, J. Barton, and M.H. Depledge. 2011. â€Å"Does  Participating in Physical Activity in Outdoor Natural Environments Have a Greater Effect on  Physical and Mental Wellbeing than Physical Activity Indoors? A Systematic Review.†Ã‚  Environmental Science and Technology 45:1761-1772. Accessed February 20, 2014. doi: 10.1021/es102947t. Dean, Julie, Kate van Dooren, Philip Weinstein. 2011. â€Å"Does biodiversity improve mental health  in urban settings?† Medical Hypotheses 76: 877-880. Accessed February 20, 2014. doi:  10.1016/j.mehy.2011.02.040. Design for Health. 2007. Key Questions: Mental Health. Version 2.0. www.designforhealth.net Dijkstra, Karin, Marcel Pieterse, and Ad Pruyn. 2006. â€Å"Physical environmental stimuli that turn  healthcare facilities into healing environments through psychologically mediated effects:  systematic review.† Journal of Advanced Nursing 56 (2): 166-181. Accessed February 20,  2014. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2648.2006.03990.x Lee, A.C.K., R. Maheswaran. 2010. â€Å"The Health Benefits of Urban Green Space: A Review of the  Evidence.† Journal of Public Health 33(2): 212-222. Accessed February 21, 2014. doi:10.1093/pubmed/fdq068. Lin, Danhua, Xiaoming Li, Bo Wang, Yan Hong, Xiaoyi Fang, Xiong Qin, and Bonita Stanton. 2011.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Discrimination, Perceived Social Inequity, and Mental Health Among Rural-to-Urban  Migrants in China.† Community Mental Health Journal 47:171-180. Accessed February 21,  2014. doi:10.1007/s10597-009-9278-4. Singhal, Vijai, Deep Pandey and Pushp Deep Pandey. 2013. â€Å"Workplace Green Space for Health  and Happiness.† Rajasthan State Pollution Control Board, Jaipur India.

History of Human Services Essay

It is common for people to expect something in return for helping someone out or providing them with a specific service. It is also very common for people to expect to have to give up something in return for asking for help or specific services. While not everyone believes that those who are in need should be helped, there are opposing positions which feel that reform is a way to retract and counteract the situation the for the person in need. In order to get a better understanding of what is needed in the present time, we must first learn and understand how and why people of the western culture helped others through human services. As provided in The Introduction to Human Services: Policy and Practice, tracing back through history it shows how the western culture went through a difficult route of providing help for people in need. It shows how people in need were provided help from their families and the church or a benevolent feudal lord, later leading to receive help from the government, then eventually receive help from volunteers or trained professionals (Mandell & Schram, 2012). In the United States there are several helpful services which are no longer being made available due to the government’s decisions to strip away the programs or services for those in need and putting much of the burden on the volunteer and charity groups or churches. With the limited amount of resources and services available, these groups and churches are limited on what they can do to help. According to Garrow (2010), â€Å"nonprofit human service organizations located in a munificent environment can pursue multiple funding opportunities such as donations, fees for services, and other revenue-generating activities† (pg 447). There are several factors which have influenced our ability and willingness to help society members. Some people are just willing to help those in need because they have the means and are either empathetic or sympathetic to the needs of others. Many people who have gone through similar instances as those who are in need now are willing to try to help someone because they can feel their pain because they have been through the same tough times. While there are some that ant to help because they can, there are also those who can help but refuse to because of their survival of the fittest mentality because of their victim blaming point of view which sees and blames people for their own misfortune and not a circumstance due to social forces (Mandell & Schram, 2012). Reciprocity is a give and take type of situation. When there is someone receiving goods or services, it is expected that there is some type of benefit received back in return. In western cycles of giving and helping this same principle is put into place. There was once a time where people would help others because they want to or because it makes them feel good for doing so. Now in more modern times people expect a benefit received from the services they provide. Some consider the fact that people are in the situation they are in because of something they have done wrong or incorrectly. Mandell & Schram (2012) provide philosophies which clash with the methods of providing help. These philosophies include: * Deserving vs. Undeserving: This is where victim blamers are as the superior to the victims who need help which are put in discriminatory classification as higher or lower categories and some are considered to be more worthy of receiving benefits and services than others (pg 32). * Means-tested vs. Universal programs: This is where means-tested programs that are available only to the poor, whose assets fall below a certain set eligibility level as oppose to universal programs that provide income supports and social services to both the affluent and the poor (pg 32). Culture of poverty vs. Opportunity theory: This is where a system of self-defeating beliefs passed on from parent to child as oppose to the theory that people are prevented from getting out of poverty because of their lack of social opportunities rather than because of their individual defects (pg 32 & 35). There are four issues within the cycle of helping in the American society which connects to all types of situations and circumstanc es of people. The cycles consist of welfare reform, treatment of mental illness, juvenile justice, and criminal justice. With all of these issues, they prove the influence of human services which are of precedence of the spotlight and should be addressed accordingly. Welfare: * Welfare is considered as Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) and according to Mandell & Schram (2012) welfare provides a good example of the cycles of reform (pg 43). * Since welfare and other safety net programs were cut back, the criminal justice system expanded, causing the United States to have the highest incarceration rate on the planet which is five times the world’s average (pg 43). Mandell & Schram, 2012) Mental Illness: * Mental illness can be diagnosed only by observing. * The imprecision of the diagnosis of schizophrenia, for example, is illustrated by a study done by thirteen psychology researchers where they all presented themselves at the doors of various mental hospitals telling them they heard voices, with the outcome of each being discharged with a diagnosis of schizophrenic on remission. There are an uneven number of people of color in mental hospitals due partly to racial discrimination and partly because an unequal numbers of them are poor. (Mandell & Schram, 2012) Juvenile Justice: * The child-saving movement was the efforts of reformers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to rescue children from unwholesome influences which led to the development of children’s institutions, foster care, and the juvenile court (pg 55). The juvenile court system was based on the belief that children who break the law should not be punished like adults (pg55). * Juvenile reformatories were supposed to protect youngsters humanely from the corrupting influences of adult criminals but youth were found guilty and was assigned to a reformatory without trial and with a minimum of legal protection because legal due process was assumed to be unnecessary since reformatories were intended to reform and not punish (pg 55). Now juveniles have the right to know the charges against them, the right to have their own lawyer, and the right to confront and cross-examine their accuser and witnesses (pg 56). (Mandell & Schram, 2011) Criminal Justice: * The U. S. is the world’s leader in incarceration with 2. 3 million people in the nation’s prisons or jails in 2010 (pg 58). * Even though most of the prisoners are men, the number of mothers in America’s state prison has reached a record high (pg 58). * Many of the mothers who have been sentenced to prison had previously received TANF (pg 58). Another reason for the increase in incarcerations has been the imprisonment of undocumented immigrants (pg59). * Prisoners have to put their lives on hold while prison and in many states cannot vote when they get out (pg59). * Some human service workers work with people who are on probation and parole or in rehabilitation programs in order to check for inaccuracies in their crime records, help children visit their parents to prevent termination of parental rights, or help released prisoners to find jobs (pg 60). Mandell & Schram, 2012) In my opinion I think that we are trying to do as much as we can to help with welfare, juvenile justice, mental illness, and criminal justice. There is only so much that can be done since government only allows so much assistance and resources to those in need. There are fortunately volunteers and charities which provide the much needed assistance and resources for those without asking for any type of payment or reciprocity in return. Just as it is stated by Oftelie (2011), â€Å"human services support our nation’s social fabric, economic competiveness and equity in the American dream. We have the strategies and technologies for increasing capacity and performance† (pg 15). We need to learn to reach out to help others to become better for themselves, their families, and society. While not everyone believes that those who are in need should be helped, there are divergent positions which point out that reform is a way to withdraw from and offset the difficult circumstances for the person in need. Throughout history there has been a list of challenges for changes which can attest for the reform within human services. Through reciprocity and other factors of societal circumstances shape the behavior for helping those in need. Even though there have been many changes in the cycles of helping in the American society, we can always use even more improvements in welfare, mental illness treatment, juvenile justice, and criminal justice systems. It is up to everyone to find a way to contribute to develop new approaches to human services.

Cooperative Learning Sample Lesson

Cooperative learning is a great technique to implement into your curriculum. As you begin to think about and design this strategy to fit into your teaching, consider using the following tips. Present the material first, cooperative learning comes after students are taught.Choose your strategy and explain how it works to the students. For this sample lesson, students will be using the jigsaw strategy.Assess students individually. Although students will work together as a team they will also be working individually to complete a specific task. Here is a cooperative learning sample lesson using the the Jigsaw method. Choosing Groups First, you must choose your cooperative learning groups. An informal group will take about one class period or the equivalent to one lesson plan period. A formal group can last from several days to several weeks. Presenting the Content Students will be asked to read a chapter in their social studies books about the first nations of North America. Afterward, read the childrens book The Very First Americans by Cara Ashrose. This is a story about how the first Americans lived. It shows the students beautiful pictures of art, clothing, and other Native American artifacts. Then, show students a brief video about Native Americans. Teamwork Now its time to divide students into groups and use the jigsaw cooperative learning technique to research the First Americans. Divide students into groups, the number depends on how many subtopics you want the students to research. For this lesson divide students into groups of five students. Each member of the group is given a different assignment. For example, one member will be responsible for researching the First American customs; while another member will be in charge of learning about the culture; another member is responsible for understanding the geography of where they lived; another must research the economics (laws, values); and   the last member is responsible for studying the climate and how the first American got food, etc. Once students have their assignment they can go off on their own to research it by any means necessary. Each member of the jigsaw group will meet with another member from another group that is researching their exact topic.For example, students that researching the First Americans culture would meet regularly to discuss information, and share information on their topic. They are essentially the expert on their particular topic. Once students have completed their research on their topic they return to their original jigsaw cooperative learning group. Then each expert will now teach the rest of their group everything that they learned. For example, the customs expert would teach members about the customs, the geography expert would teach members about the geography, and so on. Each member listens carefully and takes notes on what each expert in their groups discusses. Presentation: Groups can then give a brief presentation to the class on the key features that they learned on their particular topic. Assessment Upon completion, students are given a test on their subtopic as well as on the key features of the other topics that they learned in their jigsaw groups. Students will be tested on the First Americans culture, customs, geography, economics, and climate/food. Looking for more information about cooperative learning? Here is the official definition, group management tips and techniques, and effective learning strategies on how to monitor, assign and manage expectations.

Essay about Personal Statement Goals in Nuclear Engineering

Personal Statement: Interests, Experiences, and Goals in Nuclear Engineering Money and fame do not motivate my goals. Engineering in all forms is a field of innovation and invention. Aspirations of any great engineer should be to introduce to the world a new idea, product, or service that will make people happier and the environment safer. Success in these challenges is a reward greater than any dollar amount or public recognition. Engineers bring societies to new levels of civilization through their advancements in technology and discovery. The challenge to provide people with ever-increasing standards while at the same time feeding the population with ideas of what could be attracts my imagination, intelligence, and curiosity far more†¦show more content†¦The knowledge then expanded in an Advanced Placement Chemistry class. In physics I did a project on nuclear fusion. The paper discussed concepts of nuclear physics never taught to me. I worked hard to grasp the difficult theories, and my grades exhibit dedication to furthering this competence. Mankind has limitless potential. However, we often are first forced to break down old barriers. In the past humans have broken free of gravity and traveled through the skies. Then came the invention of the computer. The idea of millions of calculations performed each minute may have seemed absurd a century ago, but society’s dependence on it today can never be overestimated. The future, I believe, will be an era of power and energy. Nuclear technology can make deep space exploration possible while making daily life on Earth more comfortable and safer. Nuclear power has minimal threats to our natural environment, and nuclear science can detect and cure many diseases. Seeing all the possibilities related to nuclear engineering, I am easily drawn into this field. 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