NATURE AND HEALING IN URBAN COMMUNITIES: BIOETHICAL ANALYSIS OF HEALTH AND GREEN SPACES

Abstract

The health benefits of nature are numerous, wide-ranging, and often overlooked. An ever-growing body of research has started to document, substantiate, and even in some cases quantify the significance of interacting with nature and its effect on human health and well-being. These directly measurable health benefits are also compounded in urban environments by environmental and social benefits. For example, the inclusion of green spaces in urban communities has been shown to reduce violence. Green spaces are important for overall health, but also specifically for healing. The benefits of natural spaces in hospitals has been explored in the literature and shown to benefit not only patients but also family and visitors, as well as staff, by creating a healing and restorative environment that helps to reduce stress and alleviate anxiety. Lack of green space in urban communities is creating and exacerbating health disparities. Urban hospitals are often limited in their ability to include extra space, and particularly green space, in their campus, yet it is their patients who need these healing benefits the most. Particularly urban communities of low socioeconomic status are often those with the least access to green spaces, or only have access to low-quality, poorly maintained, unsafe green spaces. Yet the residents of these communities are those who stand to benefit the most from access to nature and a greener environment. Improving the accessibility, quality, safety, and square footage of natural green spaces in urban environments will help improve health equity by mitigating negative effects of the urban built environment on health and well-being, increasing the agency of these communities to live healthier lives, and allow them to reap the physical, emotional, and social benefits of green spaces.