Selected Presentations & Appearances
Introduction / Rationale:
This scoping review explores the impact of nature-based occupational participation on adolescent health and well-being, emphasizing its effects on physical, mental, and social development. While historically rooted in ancient medicine, modern research provides evidence supporting its benefits. Structured outdoor occupations reduce stress, enhance emotional regulation, and foster social connections. Eastern medicine has long integrated these approaches, while Western medicine has been slower to adopt them due to gaps in standardized assessment tools and long-term studies.
Objectives:
This review aims to examine the impact of nature-based occupational participation on adolescent health and well-being. Specifically, it investigates how nature-based interventions influence physical health, mental health, and social participation while identifying existing gaps in research and differences in practice between eastern and western medicine.
Methods / Approach:
A review of existing literature was conducted, analyzing studies on forest therapy, horticultural therapy, nature-based education, and ecotherapy. The review focused on measurable health outcomes, theoretical frameworks and barriers to accessibility. Additionally, gaps in research, including the lack of standardized assessment tools and longitudinal studies, were identified.
Results / Practice Implications:
Findings indicate that nature-based participation reduces stress, improves emotional regulation, enhances immune function, increases physical activity, and strengthens social connections. However, limited quantitative assessments and long-term studies restrict integration into mainstream healthcare. Occupational therapists can advocate for structured nature-based interventions, promote accessibility, and contribute to developing standardized evaluation tools.
Conclusion / Significance to the Occupational Therapy Profession:
Nature-based therapy presents a promising avenue for enhancing adolescent health and well-being using a holistic approach to promote participation and development. Addressing current research gaps will support the integration of nature-based interventions into practice, further expanding therapeutic options for adolescent populations.
This paper explores the role of nature-based occupations as mechanisms for fostering well-being and social participation among youth, particularly those experiencing systemic barriers to engagement. Drawing on an occupational science framework, we analyze the dynamic transactions between young people, the natural environment, and meaningful participation, 95 underscoring how engagement in nature-based occupations (e.g., horticulture, animal care, ecotherapy) can enhance resilience, identity formation, and social inclusion.
The purpose of this study is to explore the sensory health of adults with serious mental illness and its impact on their occupational participation.
In this episode of the Fear Less Podcast, host Zack interviews Professor Mary Beth Gallagher from Duke University. With over 25 years of experience in occupational therapy across the U.S. and abroad, Mary Beth shares her insights on how fear shapes and impacts mental health care systems. The conversation highlights the risk-averse nature of mental health care environments and how fear of litigation often leads to conservative treatment decisions, which can hinder patient progress. Mary Beth discusses her perspective on occupational therapy’s role in promoting well-being and how practitioners can balance safety with evidence-based interventions.
The episode also delves into the systemic challenges faced by mental health professionals, particularly in hospital settings, where fear can limit innovation and personalized care. Mary Beth shares examples of how risk aversion affects therapeutic interventions and emphasizes the need for more dialogue and flexibility in the mental health care system. She also introduces a community-focused nonprofit which she helped co-found, the Center for Community Connection (C4CC), which aims to provide holistic, occupation-based interventions to foster well-being and connection at individual, family, and community levels.
Covid-19 and social justice movements of the last three years created monumental changes in education. These changes provided opportunities for exploration and innovation in the new Duke occupational therapy doctorate program. Duke OTD received a grant from Duke Learning Innovation to establish a professional learning community (PLC) to engage in inquiry, reflection and action toward fostering classrooms and program systems characterized by equity, inclusion, and belonging. This poster presentation shares the results of the this practice based learning inquiry, fostering inclusion in the classroom and antiracism in our teaching.
This session of AJOT Authors & Issues features guests MaryBeth Gallagher (Duke University), Nancy Bagatell (UNC Chapel Hill), Kimberly Conrad (UNC Health), and Darren Peters (UNC Health). They discuss their article published in Volume 77, Issue 1 of AJOT entitled: Using Practice Based Enquiry to Enact Occupation-Centered, Justice-Oriented Practice in an Acute Mental Health Setting.
Link to Open Access article:https://research.aota.org/ajot
Paper is based on a practice based enquiry in an acute mental health setting. Practicing therapists as co-researchers explored their own practice with a view to change. In the process, the therapists encountered their own occupational injustices and collectively sought and discovered ways to create change at the micro and meso levels.
Poster presentation of experience of TBL and ULD to foster inclusion in the the classroom in the first cohort in the Duke OTD.
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Outreach & Engaged Scholarship
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