Healing Gardens

A large body of research has shown that views of gardens and landscapes lower blood pressure, help with quicker recoveries and reduce the need for pain medication after surgery . Roy-Fisher Associates thinks that well designed healing gardens and careful healthcare facility site design can be as important a tool in healing environments as medical equipment and drugs. This theme was evident over and over again at the recent symposium at the University of Georgia: “The Art and Science of Healing Gardens” that I was lucky enough to lecture at and attend.

Healing and restorative gardens fit in a variety of healthcare facilities: hospitals, assisted living facilities, nursing homes, rehabilitation facilities, outpatient facilities and drug and alcohol rehabilitation facilities by providing venues for active and passive treatment modalities. In other words, by providing something as simple as a pleasant view of a green roof outside a hospital intensive care unit room, a spot for paralyzed spinal cord patients to regain some motor activity and a sense of worth through horticultural therapy, a means to calm agitated Alzheimer’s patients, a way for elderly residents to maintain activities of daily living or for stroke or injured patients to receive physical therapy in a garden.

The stress reduction provided by carefully designed gardens is important for patients, their families as well as the clinical staff. Studies have shown that fewer medical errors are made when staff stress is reduced. There are high amounts of stress associated with a loved one’s illness that compromise caregiver’s immune systems. Gardens can reduce that stress by providing a pleasant distraction, a place for social support and exercises as well as sense of control by providing an alternate to staying in hospital waiting rooms. Ulrich, 1984