S3. E1. Dr Wetegrove talks about the importance of Nature for Mental Health

The Texas Trailhead : A Texas Hiking Podcast

Welcome back to The Texas Trailhead podcast! September is suicide prevention month, so I figured I would begin this season with a discussion about mental health.

According to the American foundation for suicide prevention, suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the united states.

In 2018 over 48 thousand people died by suicide.

In 2020 the rates should see continued increase as it has been on a constant rise since 1999.

This week I’m speaking with Dr Wetegrove, a licensed psychologist based out of the San Antonio area.

One of her main areas of focus is working with people in the outdoors and uses nature to work on mental health.

In our discussion we definitely talk about her practice, but I wanted to know more about mental health in general, who’s affected the most, what we can do to normalize the discussion surrounding it, and some best practices we can do at home.

Mental health is really important to me and it’s something I have to focus on daily. Nature was one of the main things I found that helped me, so I definitely feel that the discussion around mental health is important, but what’s also important is making it easier to talk about it and make it more accessible.

We’ll get into more detail during the interview, but it’s important to note, especially in our current climate that access to mental health providers AND the outdoors should be accessible to everyone. This isn’t a political statement.

So when I say, or when we see companies posting things like “the outdoors are for everyone” no one should be mad at that, or saying things like ‘of course they are’. But realize that in some instances it’s the access that isn’t made available.

Not everyone has the same access to parks, trails, and outdoor spaces. Just like not everyone has access to mental health services.

Dr. Wetegrove talks about some of the difficulties for people of color and lower financial backgrounds including the access to mental health care. We’ll also discuss when to start to talking to children and he work with women in the outdoors.

And since we’ll be discussing the positive effects of the outdoors, it’s important to note that making health care, and the outdoors more accessible for all will help more people in the long run.

So please enjoy this episode.

And one quick note, I realized after recording I had some microphone issues that you may hear later in the episode. I apologize in advance, and I hope it doesn’t distract from the message.

Also, here are a few links you may find useful:

10 strategies to get outdoors and improve your mental health https://connect.psych-hike.com/10-strategies

Sign up for a weekly newsletter filled with Mental Health tips https://connect.psych-hike.com/psych-hike

You can set-up hike therapy or video session with Dr. Wetegrove www.psych-hike.com