Written by Rose Hoban
The urge to return to nature to improve and maintain mental health has a long history. From the time of Hippocrates, who famously said, “Nature is the doctor of the sick,'' to “Henry David Thoreau, who went into the woods to survive,'' we deeply extract all the essence of life. ”
These days, Japanese doctors are writing prescriptions for their patients to take walks in the forest.
However, people with mental health problems very often end up spending their days in rooms lit by artificial light, with little opportunity for fresh air, sunlight, natural greenery or exercise. is.
That reality is beginning to hit Nora Dennis.
Dennis, 44, spent years training to become a psychiatrist, climbing the clinical and corporate ladders. By her late 30s, she was an adjunct professor at Duke University School of Medicine, where she saw “many patients.” She also worked for several years as behavioral health director for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina.
“I was pursuing results in a more traditional way to get more roles in larger organizations. “We felt this was a way we could create more opportunities for people with disabilities to get the care and support they needed,” she said.
However, she began to feel dissatisfied with the facility's medical care and the way patients were confined in the hospital's psychiatric ward.
“People were desperate to get out,” she said. “Would any of us choose to go eight days without seeing sunlight except through a window and fluorescent lights?”
One night in 2022, a dream pushed her in a different direction. “She woke up and said to her husband, 'I know what she wants to do with her life,'” Denise recalled, adding that she then stayed with her husband for about six months. thought of her idea, she added.
Then, in 2023, with the help of her parents, both retired doctors, Dennis bought nine acres of land in rural Orange County between Chapel Hill and Hillsborough and began treating her serious mental health issues. They started building a place where people with disabilities could spend the day outdoors. While she undergoes intensive psychiatric treatment, she grows vegetables and flowers in her garden and takes care of animals.
Last month, Dennis filed paperwork with the state Department of Health and Human Services to obtain a license to operate Jubilee Healing Farm. Once all the paperwork is approved by the county and state, she can open. Denise said she hopes that will happen within the next few months.
Think big, start small
Jubilee will be one of 15 care farms in North Carolina. The care farm uses nature and farming methods as a key part of restoring the mental health of patients with everything from anxiety and depression to bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. People will have the opportunity to work in the fields and raise rabbits and chickens while receiving therapy in on-site facilities.
For now, Dennis is thinking small.
“We're looking at six to eight clients with two health care providers, one peer support specialist and one licensed clinical social worker,” she said. “I'm here to provide medication management and, of course, provide leadership and oversight.
“Within that, we offer clinical services combined with the outdoors.”
Her vision is to serve people who have just been discharged from a psychiatric hospital and are re-entering the community, especially those with public insurance. To serve these people, she wants to offer “partial hospitalization.” This is a treatment designed to allow people to receive treatment for several hours a day, avoiding the need for full-scale hospitalization. There may also be “intensive outpatient'' programs, where patients spend half their day in treatment. In addition to more traditional talk therapy sessions, time will be built in for activities such as growing blueberries and blackberries, hoeing vegetable rows, and caring for long-haired Angora rabbits.
“I have this idea about rabbits because they're such gentle, cute little creatures, and if you don't brush them every day, their fur gets tangled,” Dennis said, adding that he cares for the animals. He cited research showing that petting can calm people (and rabbits) and even lower blood pressure.
“Most of us have the experience of being in nature and connected to the non-human world, feeling a deep sense of peace, less anxiety, a sense of connection and tranquility, and a sense of our…purpose and self. “Our values,” Dennis said.
More formal therapy services take place within our indoor facility, which includes a newly renovated barn, kitchen, sofas and overstuffed chairs for group therapy sessions, and private rooms for individual therapy. The building is flooded with natural light.
The barn includes open space for exercise, yoga and dance instruction, but Dennis worries that too often these activities are only available to the wealthy.
“I want to support everyone's right to movement, everyone's right to eat fresh, healthy food, everyone's right to sunshine,” Dennis said. “It’s really important to try to make sure these are available, especially if mental illness is part of the problem.”
“Every day, there's movement. It's not just in your head, right? It's embodied,” she added. “It is embodied not only in your own body, but also in the bodies of the earth, plants and animals.”
be patient
At this time, Jubilee Healing Farm appears to be a work in progress. Deer fencing surrounds about two acres of newly planted fields and a hoop house filled with seedlings. There is a hutch with three shaggy Angora rabbits. Two large fields are lined with young plants, bushy blueberry and blackberry bushes, and small green plants. There are several thin fruit trees in one corner of the field.
Dennis said it may take more than 10 years to accomplish his grand plan, but he believes there will be steps along the way to make it a reality. “These plants will produce blueberries within two years,” she said, waving at the rows of plants about a foot tall.
Local farmer Howard Allen, a member of the Jubilee Healing Farm board of directors, asked Dennis to help him plan the plot, which includes fruit, herb circles, orchards, and a market garden. Allen also offers therapeutic opportunities at his facility, Faithful His Farms, which accepts clients and staff from his Center for Counseling in Durham.
“My advice was to do things up front that will last for a long time and won’t require maintenance or major upkeep once established,” Allen said. “Then things like market gardens will be last because they require almost daily management and require more attention.”
Allen, who left his job as a chef and adjunct culinary arts professor to start a farm near Carrboro about seven years ago, gave Dennis a reality check. “It's better to accept that everything won't happen overnight.”
“Before I started this, and even when I first started, I was really in a hurry,” Dennis said. “If something was delayed a month or a week, I would be very flustered.”
Dennis says he's getting used to a more flexible timeline. It's therapeutic for her, who works to develop natural, relaxing spaces for people with mental health issues to nurture the flora and fauna around them.
“I think there's something really calming about this,” Dennis said.
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