March 31, 2020 by Taylor Walsh While COVID-19 may have forced unparalleled “physical distancing” on the population, it has also inspired re-assessments, innovations and taking the time to look at things from new vantage points. This is particularly true now as the well documented health benefits of time in nature become more widely known. NIH Focus on Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Health: A Visit to Bethesda A school garden like the one above at Lafayette Elementary School in Washington — prepared but untended in the wake of the pandemic — would certainly be a new vantage point for the nation’s leading healthcare researchers. As it happens, the idea of linking a student’s time in a school garden with reducing stress and anxiety was the focus of a unique briefing at NIH’s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, NCCIH, Bethesda, MD on March 4. Working with NCCIH Deputy Director David Shurtleff we arranged a briefing for a few colleagues to hear from researchers very experienced with wellness activities now well established in K-12: mindfulness, PE and fitness, nature and environmental education, yoga, garden and food prep, and SEL. In recent years NIH has been steadily developing an interest in examining the increasing difficulties in mental, emotional, and behavioral (or MEB) health in the U.S. population. In 2018 NCCIH hosted a workshop on “Emotional Well-Being: Emerging Insights and Questions for Future Research” that included profiles on school interventions aimed at students and teachers. NCCIH was later a co-sponsor with the CDC and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Agency (SAMHSA) of this report released by the National Academies of Science in September, 2019: Fostering Healthy Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Development in Children and Youth: A National Agenda Not surprisingly, apart from simple mention of social and emotional learning there was no mention of other school-base wellness programs. But Dr. Shurtleff saw in whole health approaches in schools potential alignment with two important points of strategic emphasis for NCCIH: 1) Embracing a whole-person-health framework for its work, and 2) Addressing these MEB impacts on wellbeing in the population at large What was envisioned last December as a small, informal briefing became a 20-person gathering, including NCCIH Director Helene Langevin, Dr. Shurtleff and other NCCIH senior staff. Our briefing team included: Erica Sibinga MD, Associate Professor, Division of General Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Science of Learning Institute Chair, Section on Integrative Medicine, American Academy of Pediatrics Chris D’Adamo PhD, Assistant Professor, Family & Community Medicine University of Maryland School of Medicine Director of Research, Center for Integrative Medicine Jennifer Sacheck PhD, Sanofi Professor of Prevention and Wellness Chair, Dept. Exercise and Nutrition Sciences George Washington University Milken Institute of Public Health Kimberly T. Kendzoira PhD, Managing Researcher, American Institutes for Research Social and Emotional Learning and Education Sarah Haines PhD, Associate Professor, Dept. of Biological Sciences, Science and Environmental Education, Towson University Cathy Jordan Phd, LP, Prof. of Pediatrics, U of Minnesota; Director of Research Children & Nature Network Two DC-area WholeHealthED advisors, Kevin Berry, MD and Wendy Bohdel joined as well. This 90-minute discussion was a first occasion to consider the health-creating potential of combined wellness programs available across the nation on K-12 campuses. (It was the first time anyone could recall hearing from experts in these diverse domains.) Dr. Shurtleff graciously tweeted out after the meeting: @NIH_NCCIH is pleased to be part of the conversation on how best to focus whole-health research across the lifespan, especially with children and adolescents using school-based and other innovative approaches… It is very important work that fits with our strategic objective to “Foster Health Promotion and Disease Prevention” Expanding traditional healthcare’s view of “prevention” to include student experiences in collaborative, hands-on wellness programs during their school years would be a major step in shifting the view that these experiences are “nice-to-have” extracurriculars (of uncertain sustainability) to essential-to-have pieces for a complete 21st century education. (NCCIH Director Langevin discusses whole-person-health during this Feb. 2020 webinar on the NCCIH Strategic Plan, 2021-2026.)