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The Nature-Health Connection!
July 29 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Prescribing Nature for Patient and Planetary Health.
Did you know that health-care providers can prescribe nature to their patients? How and why might this work, you wonder?
Join us for Dr. Lem’s presentation on PaRX, Canada’s national nature prescription program.
Doors at 6:30pm, by donation at the door.
Dr. Melissa Lem is a Vancouver family physician who works in rural and northern communities within Canada, and first started providing locum services on Mayne Island 15 years ago. Co-Founder of PaRx, Canada’s national nature prescription program, Past President of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment and a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia, she is an internationally recognized leader in the field of nature, biodiversity and health who has also engaged in advocacy and policy work on a broad range of other issues, from extreme heat and hydraulic fracturing to sustainable health care and low-carbon transportation.
Previously a senior writer for the CBC, and widely published in other media outlets, one of Dr. Lem’s major priorities is knowledge translation. She was the resident medical expert on CBC TV’s hit lifestyle show Steven and Chris for four seasons, and is currently CBC Vancouver News at 6’s in-house medical columnist and a climate change panellist on CBC Radio’s Early Edition. Dr. Lem is also a co-investigator and advisor on two international nature prescription research projects (PANDA and RESONATE) with total funding of $10M+. She holds multiple advisory and editorial board positions, including with the Nature Conservancy of Canada, Journal of Mental Health and Climate Change, and IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas Health and Well-being Specialist Group.