Lone Star Family Health Center in Montgomery County is fighting rising childhood obesity rates by encouraging patients to spend more time in nature.
Since 2011, the health center’s doctors have written prescriptions for children to spend more time outside and less time with technology. In April, the center took this initiative one step further by becoming the first federally qualified health center in the U.S. with a certified nature explore classroom.
“We got approached through a grant to build one of these classrooms at our center, and we thought it was just a beautiful integration between health care and nature while trying to get people healthier,” Medical Director Daniel Porter said. “We see a tremendous amount of childhood obesity here and all of the problems that childhood obesity brings later in life. There’s research now that shows that if you can get children out in nature, you reduce [conditions] like asthma, ADD, depression and anxiety.”
The $30,000 project was funded through a federal grant from the National Environmental Education Foundation and the National Parks Service. The health center was notified of the grant award in January, and the park celebrated its grand opening in April.
The nature explore classroom is situated adjacent to the health center in Conroe and has stations that integrate different learning styles with nature. Geared toward children ages 1-6, the classroom includes a music station, a water feature, a garden with fresh herbs and produce, and stations where children can use natural objects to build creations small and large.
“I just kept seeing kid after kid with childhood obesity, and I was just looking for something else to offer them,” Dr. Porter said. “You don’t want to put a child on drugs—that shouldn’t be our treatment for obesity and all these other problems—if we can treat it by just changing their lifestyle.”
Health center counselors and their mental health patients also use the facility, as nature helps open up communication barriers, he said.
The next step for the health center will be figuring out a way to scientifically track data to see how these initiatives are working, Porter said.
“This is just the infancy to me,” he said. “We as doctors need to do something different because we’re not really changing the childhood obesity or the diabetes rates by doing what we’re doing. Doctors are motivated to help fix problems so I think if we can just get into the mindset that there are solutions beyond medications, we can make a difference.”
605 S. Conroe Medical Drive, Conroe 936-539-4004 www.lonestarfamily.org
