Episode Details

In this episode, I’m joined by Dr Ralph Mortimer-Roome, a GP based in Brighton and Chair of the Kent, Surrey and Sussex regional group of Greener Practice.

We discuss what changes when we stop seeing health as something that sits only inside the individual body, and begin to include climate, community, relationship and the living world in how we understand healing.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why the climate crisis is also a health crisis — and why solutions for planetary health can also support human health.
• What older medical traditions can teach us about health as balance, rather than simply the absence of disease.
• The idea that illness has not only biological causes, but also social, political and environmental dimensions.
• The tension between the transactional and relational sides of medicine — treating illness while also helping people feel heard and understood.
• David Abram’s influence on Ralph’s thinking, particularly the idea of the healer as an intermediary between the human and more-than-human world.
• Why mental distress can be understood through multiple lenses — biomedical, psychological, social, trauma-informed and spiritual.
• How loneliness and social isolation can contribute to ill health, and whether nature disconnection may operate in a similar way.
• Why doctors may need to recognise their own relationship with nature before they can notice nature disconnection in others.
• What a green prescription can actually look like — from signposting and access to green spaces, to walking groups and supported outdoor care.
• Why simply moving healthcare outdoors is not enough — and the difference between being outside and developing a relationship with nature.
• What a more embedded nature-based care pathway in Sussex could look like, including outdoor consultations, local sites, social prescribing and primary care.
• Ralph’s closing idea of nature as a gift rather than something to consume — rooted in reciprocity, care and the possibility of healing.

Show Notes:

https://theoutdoorteacher.com/podcasts/episode-98-what-if-nature-is-part-of-medicine/

Music by Geoff Robb: www.geoffrobb.com

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