November 2012 - Parks & Recreation - 40

Parks are Good Medicine
" To prescribe NATURE to patients and families
to encourage outside time in one of 350 green
spaces/parks... "
So reads the short-term goal statement of D.C.
Park Rx, an experimental partnership among
Washington, D.C., pediatricians, the D.C. Department of Health, the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services, George
Washington University, and several private foundations.
TREND
The program's longer-term goals are
#
to combat obesity and asthma, promote
mental health, and foster environmental
stewardship among the younger generation. D.C. Park Rx is one of a number of recent
park prescription initiatives around the country
based on collaboration between physicians and
park agencies. Because Washington, D.C., is a city
where federal lands and resources exist side by side
with high percentages of low-income families and
children with obesity challenges, the nation's capital provides a unique platform for a multi-agency
partnership linking public lands to public health.
Pediatrician Robert Zarr, who heads the D.C.
chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics
and whose practice serves a low-income and imPediatrician Robert Zarr
migrant population, is a leader of the program and
on a prescriptive walk
a champion of the park prescription concept. Inwith children from
Washington, D.C.
ﬂuenced by author Richard Louv's writings (Last

Parks & Recreation

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Map coordinates are set according
to the patient's address, and doctor,
patient, and parent(s) confer as to
whether a park prescription might
be appropriate.
Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deﬁcit Disorder) and alarmed by the growing rates of childhood obesity and asthma, Zarr
urges doctors to back up recommendations with
practical guidance on local resources.
Zarr describes an approach to park prescriptions that blends a traditional exam with a media
display. During a well-child visit, if an exam and
patient survey indicate the patient could beneﬁt
from increased activity outdoors (whether due
to asthma or obesity risk), Zarr says the next step
is to pull up an illuminated, blown-up electronic map showing nearby parks and other public
recreational facilities. Map coordinates are set
according to the patient's address, and doctor,
patient, and parent(s) confer as to whether a park
prescription might be appropriate.
As an additional resource, Zarr offers families
one-page park summaries (evaluated according
to a standardized park rating tool and compiled
by medical residents who visit each park). So far,
he says, the map-customized prescriptions have
been well received. And follow-ups one to three
months after the park prescriptions show that families are indeed spending
more time at the 10 to 15
parks around Zarr's clinic.
" Many people, " he comments, " simply weren't
aware of all the parks
around them. "
Zarr says the next steps
are to ﬁnish rating Washington's parks, to connect park data with patient
medical records (so that
doctors can easily show
proximity of parks and
recreational programs),
and to find funds with
which to formally research the impact of park
prescriptions.

November 2012 - Parks & Recreation

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