S3E21 - The mental health of Green and Blue Spaces, with Ellie

It's easy to assume that proximity to greenery or stretches of water (rivers, lakes, the sea) is good for your mental health.... Not so fast... Ellie dismantles some of Will's assumptions in this episode!

They discuss Ellie's new PhD at the University of Cumbria, funded through an NIHR-supported Mental Health Leaders Award focused on mental health inequalities in Cumbria.

Ellie’s research explores how disabled young people living rurally or coastally in Cumbria perceive green and blue spaces (parks, woodlands, gardens, seas, rivers, lakes) and other “third spaces” outside home and work/school as affecting their mental health and wellbeing.

She critiques romanticised assumptions and lab-based or map-proximity studies that ignore access and infrastructure barriers, sharing personal experiences of feeling excluded from nature and reframing the issue as accessibility. 

00:00 Welcome Back Update
00:49 Podcast Return Intro
01:25 Ellie PhD Overview
02:30 Defining Green Blue
03:19 Why Disabled Youth
05:07 Nature Access Epiphany
07:23 Research Questions Approach
08:21 Critiquing Nature Studies
12:55 Access Versus Proximity
17:48 Romanticizing Landscapes
20:45 Colonial Rurality Debate
22:44 What The PhD Hopes
24:15 Subscribe And Goodbye
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