The importance of 'place' and its influence on rural and remote health and well-being in Australia.

AIMS: This article explores the crucial role of 'place' as an ecological, social and cultural determinant of health and well-being, with a focus on the benefits and challenges of living rurally and remotely in Australia. CONTEXT: The health system, including health promotion, can contribute actively to creating supportive environments and places that foster health and well-being among individuals residing in rural and remote locations. For First Nations peoples, living on Country, and caring for Country and its people, are core to Indigenous worldviews, and the promotion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and well-being. Their forced removal from ancestral lands has been catastrophic. For all people, living in rural and remote areas can deliver an abundance of the elements that contribute to a 'liveable' community, including access to fresh air, green and blue space, agricultural employment, tight-knit communities, a sense of belonging and identity, and social capital. However, living remotely also can limit access to employment opportunities, clean water, affordable food, reliable transport, social infrastructure, social networks and preventive health services. 'Place' is a critical enabler of maintaining a healthy life. However, current trends have led to a reduction in local services and resources, and increased exposure to the impacts of climate change. APPROACH: This commentary suggests ideas and strategies through which people in rural and remote locations can strengthen the liveability, resilience and identity of their communities, and regain access to essential health care and health promotion services and resources. CONCLUSION: Recommended strategies include online access to education, employment and telehealth; flexible provision of social infrastructure; and meaningful and responsive university-health service partnerships.

Trees, Climate Change, and Health: An Urban Planning, Greening and Implementation Perspective.

The In Conversation: Boundary, Spanners, Thinkers and Policy Actors Round Table Series provides a platform for researchers, policy actors, and implementation experts to elevate discussion on emerging issues, present new and upcoming research, and facilitate conversations around impacts and possible solutions. This brief report, on trees, climate change, and health, reflects a conversation between the authors of this paper, along with supporting literature. It explores the potential of green spaces and trees as a viable strategy to address climate change challenges and simultaneously improve population health, well-being, and health equity. In particular, it highlights the public health benefits of trees and green space, the challenges faced in urban areas, and opportunities for the protection, maintenance and regeneration of urban green space.

School lunchboxes as an opportunity for health and environmental considerations: a scoping review.

Very little research has focussed on children's school lunchboxes from both a health and environment standpoint. This scoping review explores studies that considered children's lunchbox food consumption trends at school and the environmental impacts of lunchbox contents. We conducted a scoping review of peer-reviewed literature with a focus on lunchboxes of children in preschool or primary school settings that contained food packed from home, through the lens of food and nutrition in combination with environmental outcomes-particularly food and/or packaging waste. The review included 10 studies, with articles from Australia, USA, Spain, New Zealand and the UK. Half of them were intervention studies aiming to shift knowledge levels and attitudes of teachers, parents and children with regard to reducing packaged food choices and food waste, and improving dietary habits. Acknowledging the complexity of lunchbox packing and consumption practices, this review recommends the consideration of socio-ecological influences on children's health and sustainability behaviour, and mobilizing their pro-environmental agency.

School food environments play a key role in children's health and behaviour development. However, there are environmental implications of school food and this is not often considered in conjunction with schoolchildren's health based on their food consumption patterns. While wider environmental impacts of school food provision models have been studied, the more immediate and child-relevant outcomes (such as food and packaging waste) are also worth considering, especially in the context of school lunchboxes. This scoping review explored the existing literature for studies that focussed on school children's lunchbox contents and considered health attributes along with packaging and waste characteristics. Results from this review of 10 articles, which also describes the five interventions identified, pointed towards the merit of tapping into children's agency of change while also recognizing socio-ecological influences to drive sustainability practices for health co-benefits. The interconnectedness of nutritional quality and sustainability characteristics of school lunchboxes is an understudied phenomenon, but one with promising potential to promote and improve public health and planetary wellbeing.

Content analysis of school websites: policies and programs to support healthy eating and the environment.

Preschools and primary schools are important settings for the development of healthy eating habits and awareness of environmentally friendly practices. This study explored South Australian government schools' policies and programs in relation to healthy eating and environmentally friendly aspects of food choice (such as packaging), and whether any schools approached these issues in combination. Websites of 18 government preschools and primary schools in the Greater Adelaide region, stratified by low, medium and high socioeconomic status were reviewed for publicly available policies and other relevant content. A content analysis was undertaken, with policies and programs analysed deductively and thematically. Healthy eating (n = 8) and environment (n = 3) related policies were found on preschool websites only. The main themes observed across the three categories of interest (healthy eating, environmentally friendly practices and low-waste healthy foods) included the presence/absence of formal policy, promotional strategies and implementation. Expectations of children bringing healthy 'nude' foods that were environmentally friendly were mentioned informally on the websites but were not part of policy documents. Policies and programs around healthy eating and environmentally friendly practices (in combination) were lacking. There is scope to address this gap to improve health and sustainable outcomes within the school environment context.