General Practitioners' Perceptions on Prescribing Coastal Visits for Mental Health in Flanders (Belgium)

Increasing evidence suggests that visiting the coast benefits mental health and that coastal prescribing is a promising societal endpoint. General practitioners (GPs) are the pivotal access point for patients to receive diagnosis and treatment, but little is known about their perspective on recommending patients to visit the coast.

This study applied qualitative semi-structured interviews to explore GPs' perspectives on coastal prescribing in Flanders. We interviewed eleven GPs (aged 32-69 years) and inspected their responses using inductive thematic analysis.

Results show that the interviewed GPs generally believed in the therapeutic benefits of the coast, but also acknowledged risks associated with crowding and patient-specific effects. Six barriers were identified for coastal prescribing: feasibility concerns, lack of awareness, prioritizing physical exercise or visiting nearby green nature, anticipating low motivation of the patient, feeling pressure to prescribe medication, and needing more scientific evidence. As solutions, they proposed gathering more scientific evidence and raising awareness. Finally, the GPs regarded their field expertise as valuable in helping to recruit patients for follow-up research on the health effects of the coast.

Our findings highlight the importance of engaging GPs, patients, and other stakeholders to identify key knowledge gaps before co-creating coastal prescribing in healthcare.