The natural world provides our life support system- giving us clean air and water, a stable climate and healthy soils to grow our food. Earth’s biological richness, or biodiversity, offers us precious medicines and beautiful places for psychological and spiritual rejuvenation. Yet modern life has seen screen spaces replace green places as we have moved inside and into virtual worlds. This change has not been good for us, or our planet. Lifestyle-related diseases and mental health problems are overwhelming health systems everywhere. Meanwhile, outside, the natural world is falling apart with climate change and mass extinctions of plants and animals.

The solution is simple: we need to reconnect to nature.

Join mother, nature lover and GP, Dr Dimity Williams, as she discusses her new book, Nature, Our Medicine: How the natural world sustains us, with DEA’s Chair, Dr Kate Wylie.

Incorporating science, history, stories, and alternative cultural knowledge, Dr Williams makes the case that caring for nature is essential for our wellbeing. And for all life on Earth. With a Foreword by Bob Brown, her book provides an accessible exploration of the link between human health and the natural world.

Presenter:

Dr Dimity Williams is a mother, nature lover, and family doctor. Following her medical degree, she completed further training to become a fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. She has worked as a Family Physician for over 25 years and enjoys looking after the whole person from pre-conception to old age. Dr Williams has completed additional training in obstetrics, paediatrics and mental health. She has worked in environmental advocacy with multiple organisations from grassroots community groups to large associations. Dimity is an alumna of the Centre for Sustainability Leadership and a co-founder of the Kids In Nature Network.

Dr Williams contribution to DEA has been outstanding over a 13-year period. This includes roles as Victorian Secretary and 4 years on the Board where she created the first presentation on climate change and health, co-wrote the climate change and health policies with David Shearman and the late Tony Mc Michael, facilitated the development of DEA’s vision and mission statements and logo and produced a promotional film. She founded the Biodiversity Special Interest Group 7 years ago. Passionate about integrating nature into healthcare, she has written and spoken about the ‘nature: health interface’ in various forums and delights in issuing nature prescriptions.