Therapeutic Gardening Educator Job Description

Community Gardening

3. Assess assets and resources. To discover skills and knowledge within the group that can be used to build and maintain a garden, conduct an asset assessment by interviewing all members of the group.

People who could help in locating a garden site or handle questions about irrigation orzoning are identified. Contact the local garden groups and the Extension Center to get access to gardening experts. 10.

The community should be created. A community garden is about sharing the joy of gardening. The Communication Committee can help create lines of communication within your group to make sure the news about the garden reaches everyone.

Some groups have websites, email distribution lists, and a phone tree. Each garden is different based on the needs of children, the population served, the amount of space available for gardening and equipment storage, and other factors. A community garden that involves children can be sponsored by a school or church.

The Warrior and Family Center Support Center: A Therapeutic Garden Design Award

Hospitals, skilled nursing homes, assisted living residences, continuing care retirement communities, out-patient cancer centers, and other healthcare and residential environments can all have therapeutic gardens. The gardens are mostly about incorporating plants and friendly wildlife. The settings can be programmed to include active uses such as raised planters for gardening or quiet sitting areas next to a small pond with a waterfall.

The Warrior and Family Center Support Center has a healing garden. The garden at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, was awarded the Therapeutic Garden Design Award by the AHTA in 2015. The Warrior and Family Center is to create an environment that will allow people with disabilities to rejoin society and lead civilian lives.

Green spaces in hospitals: a network of care farms

Exposure to plants and green space is beneficial to mental and physical health, and so could reduce the pressure on the health service. Health professionals should encourage their patients to use green space and to work in gardens, and should pressure local authorities to increase open spaces and the number of trees, thus also helping to counteract air pollution and climate change. When patients were exposed to different types of plants, both pain and length of stay were reduced and patients were more satisfied with their hospital rooms.

The evidence that charged ion affect mood is unconvincing despite the advertisements that recommend their benefits. Florence Nightingale supported therapeutic gardens in hospitals, they improve the surroundings for patients, visitors and staff. The spaces support biodiversity and have increased satisfaction reported by those who use them, which is why they have been emphasized by Ulrich11.

Green Care farms have grown in number in northern Europe and now there are hundreds of them in the Netherlands and Norway. Patients with impaired mental health, learning disabilities, or drug dependency are referred for a period of work in functioning farms, often involving animals. The University of Essex in England has set up a network of care farms.

The network included 180 farms, which were visited by 3000 patients a week, and 40 of their positive benefits have been independently reviewed. The fourth leading cause of premature death is the result of the epidemic of physical inactivity, according to Intelligent Health. The Department of Health says that an increase of 10% in average exercise by adults would save 6000 lives and 500 million dollars a year.

What is a therapeutic garden?

It is a time-proven practice. The benefits of garden environments have been documented for a long time. The first evidence of the positive effect working in the garden had on individuals with mental illness was presented by Dr. Benjamin Rush, who was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and recognized as the "Father of American Psychiatry".

In the 1940s and 1950s, rehabilitative care of hospitalized war veterans was accepted. The practice of horticultural therapy gained in credibility and was embraced for a much wider range of diagnoses and therapeutic options. Today, horticultural therapy is accepted as a good therapy.

It is used in a wide range of settings. A therapeutic garden is a plant-dominated environment designed to facilitate interaction with the healing elements of nature. Depending on the garden design and users needs, interactions can be passive or active.

There are many types of therapeutic gardens, including healing gardens, enabling gardens, rehabilitation gardens, and restorative gardens. What makes a garden therapeutic? A therapeutic garden can include wide and gently graded accessible entrances and paths, raised planting beds and containers, and a sensory-oriented plant selection.