Nature Rx 

Nature Rx @ The University of Florida 

Nature-based health programs on the UF Campus

The University of Florida is a large land grant university with many colleges: Law, Agriculture and Life Sciences, 6 colleges in the Health Science  Center, Architecture, Arts, Liberal Arts and Sciences, a large campus with significant natural areas on campus and some distance from campus, a number of natural resource based programs such as forestry, natural resources, Museums of Art and Natural History. It therefore has numerous resources and programs to address student, faculty, and staff wellness, and more are always being developed.

• Wilmot Gardens

Therapeutic Horticulture Program

The mission of the Therapeutic Horticulture Program at Wilmot Gardens is to improve lives through engaging with horticulture. The program is situated at the nexus of the gardens’ commitment to patient care, education, and research, drawing on key partnerships with UF’s Department of Environmental Horticulture in the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and UF Health, which includes the Southeast’s largest and most comprehensive academic health center.

Since its inception, the program has served a variety of vulnerable populations with special needs including veterans with spinal cord injury/disease and mental illness, stroke patients, cancer survivors, patients with end stage renal disease, individuals with movement disorders, and young adults with autism. Caregivers of these groups are also included. In addition to educating these individuals about various horticultural techniques, the program promotes several therapeutic benefits, including socialization, intellectual and sensory stimulation, respite and relaxation, stress reduction, increased confidence, improvement in coping skills and restoration from mental fatigue.

We also teach academic courses in horticultural therapy and therapeutic horticulture.

• Health Science Center Library 

Wellness Team

• Farm and Fork

Growing food for students  

• Office of Sustainability

Sustainability 

• UF/IFAS Extension

Florida Cooperative Extension

• Housing

Living Learning Initiatives/Communities   

• Recsports

Center for Outdoor Recreation and Education (CORE) offers outdoor skills workshops, adventure trips, gear rental, leadership training opportunities, a challenge course, as well as grants

Lake Wauburg 

• Mindfulness

UF Mindfulness includes nature-based healing activities in their workshop series  

• Healthy Gators Coalition

Program brings together groups at the University that champion wellness.