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Your Outside MindsetAuthor: Verla Fortier
Join retired nursing professor Verla Fortier as she shows you that going outside is not just a fun thing to do -- it can save your life. Verla shines the light on aging adults who may have chronic disease as she talks to green space scientists, forest bathing leaders, natural navigators, and all things in-between to get practical tips on how you can get the most out of your time spent close to trees, grass, and shrubs. If you want to live longer, prevent dementia, and control your chronic illness - you will love being a part of this conversation. Language: en-us Genres: Health & Fitness, Medicine, Mental Health Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Professor Sonya Jakubec: The Power of Nature Connectedness in Grief
Episode 59
Monday, 9 November, 2026
Dr. Sonya Jakubec (RN, PhD) is a Professor at the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta. A community mental health nurse for over 35 years and in all corners of the world, Sonya now studies the health and environment connection, with a focus on parks inclusion in disability, dying, death, grief and loss. Born in the Southern Interior of British Columbia, but living most of her adult life in Alberta, Sonya resides comfortably along this great divide, most at home in her happy place - Yoho National Park [NOTE: "Yoho", or yôhô! in Cree language, is an expression of awe and amazement].Sonya is a contributor to a brand new book "Courage to Care: Ripples of Love in Action" a powerful collection of 160 stories, poems, refections, and art of everyday care that holds families and communities together. 2:47 Sonya has a lifelong connection to the outdoors, rooted in a childhood spent outside in Kelowna, British Columbia during the 1970s. While practicing nursing working in West Africa, Sonya observed that healthcare and nursing were predominantly conducted outdoors. However, upon returning to Canada, she noticed her professional and personal life had become heavily institutionalized and indoor-focused. This realization prompted an intentional effort to reconnect with the outdoors through volunteering in local parks.6:00 Parks Inclusion, Well-being Studies, and End-of-Life CareGuided by the Alberta Parks motto, "everyone belongs outside," the initiative focuses heavily on inclusion and adaptive recreation. Sonya partnered with the provincial government to study the impacts of adaptive challenges on individuals with disabilities and their caregivers. Using pre- and post-activity indicators, the research measured changes in well-being, anxiety, quality of life, and depression. The findings demonstrated marked improvements in mental well-being and social connectivity, particularly for seniors.This research was subsequently extended to end-of-life and long-term care patients, populations that traditionally suffer from a profound lack of outdoor access. The studies revealed that taking these patients outside significantly reduced their sense of hopelessness and decreased depression. When researchers conducted follow-up interviews, they discovered that participants' remaining hopelessness stems not from the outdoor experience itself, but from the grim realization that they might never get outside again. Sonya says her work is part of a movement that bridged the gap between the healthcare and environmental sectors, sparking a broader "Healthy Parks, Healthy People" and "Parks Rx" movement over the last 20 years. It also highlighted systemic barriers, such as health aides in palliative care worrying whether institutional rules permitted them to take terminal patients outdoors.The Good Grief Project and Community-Led SupportThe Good Grief Project emerged from these insights, utilizing surveys and interviews to explore how nature teaches individuals to grieve. The findings were shared across sectors, including hospice workers, community care groups, and parks providers, generating widespread interest in replicating the model. "Peace in the Parks," Accessibility, and Dementia-Inclusive DesignAn Alberta Parks initiative. A documentary funded through a rural grant highlighted the intensive planning families undergo to visit a park. The core takeaway from this project is that while accessing nature at the end of life is "not always easy, it is always worth it." Success requires clear cross-sector communication regarding accessible pathways, specific viewpoints, bathroom access, and electrical outlets for medical equipment like oxygen tanks.Finally, Sonya's work with Dementia Inclusive Park designed in collaboration with universities and community associations. Nestled between a 55+ club and an assisted living complex, the park utilizes explicit "wayfinding" visual anchors, such as colour-coded handrails and clear level pathways, to prevent confusion for residents and their families. This sensory-inclusive, intergenerational design serves as a model for the Parks Foundation Calgary toolkit, proving that urban spaces built to assist those with dementia ultimately create safer, more navigable, and welcoming environments for everyone.7:00 initiated studies looking at adaptive challenges – and teamed up with provincial government to include people with disabilities and their caregivers. Looked at well being, anxiety, quality of life indicators, depression indicators pre and post. 9:00 then extended this to end of life. We saw that people’s sense of hopelessness went down. Although mood improved, depression went down. When we went back to the participants the hopelessness was because they knew they “probably would not get back outside like this again.” Long term patients said “we don’t go outside.” 11:00 Funders were moved by this. And became interested in grief, loss, and end of life. Cemeteries are parks too. So there became a blurring of lines as to what is health? and what is parks? There is a kind of movement right now. 11:28 Healthy parks, healthy people movement has been evolving over the past 20 years – with the Parks Rx movement – part of a bigger story around people and parks.12:04 We can get in our own way a bit. We can start to seeing our own nonsense in our particular sector – eg health aide in palliative care worried that my not be allowed to take a patient outside. "Courage to Care" this week. I am definitely one of the more "ordinaries" speaking about ordinary caregiving with care...14:48 Good Grief Project Survey – around meaning, desires that people have, meaningful, comforting (socially and psychologically). 16:41 interviews how nature teaches us to grieve. Meaningful personal accounts presented to hospice workers across sectors, to community and social care groups, to parks, to providers. 18:04 Have gone from strength to strength, bringing grief walking partners together to tool kit this. Organized along compassionate community, just walking along side one another in loss, troubled times, change, and connecting with nature. 19:00 Just normalizes every day – together in the seasons of life. See things differently in different seasons and in your own cycles of life. 20:04 caring for each other in nature and caring for nature kind of go hand in hand. Something good about this being in the domaine of the community not just healthcare. Grief and loss are natural and can be housed in the community. 25:00 Sharing the research with the community and some everyday programming is the secret sauce. Moving it forward is kind of freeing because you don’t actually know where everything is going to go – that is what is so real about this. Doing this is a way that fits with the community, there is no formula. So even when we toolkit the process and build it out in a way that is shareable – it is not super prescriptive and I don’t believe it should be or super proprietary. For peer reviewed research on how your time spent in green space can change your mindset, balance your nervous system and your heart rate please go to verlafortier.substack.com and check out my books Take Back Your Outside Mindset: Live Longer, Stress Less, and Control Your Chronic Illness and Optimize Your Heart Rate: Balance Your Mind and Body With Green Space
