FEATURE

Therapeutic Characteristics By Teresia Hazen, MED, HTR, QMHP Photo: Legacy Health Reprint permission has been given by the American Horticultural Therapy Association Therapeutic are being built with Benign and supportive conditions: increasing frequency in health care settings. 5 Therapeutic gardens provide safe, secure and Among these new gardens, there is a high comfortable settings for people. The avoidance degree of correlation in physical design of potentially hazardous chemicals such as , fertilizers, and insecticides, the and programming intended to improve provision of shade and other protective structures, therapeutic benefits to garden visitors and the flourishing , and the protected and participants including patients, residents protective nature of the therapeutic garden offer and clients. Characteristics of therapeutic personal comfort and refuge to the garden user. garden were initially developed in 1993 by an Universal design: Therapeutic gardens American Horticultural Therapy Association are designed for the convenience and (AHTA) workteam based on best practices 6 enjoyment for people with the widest possible and evidence based design principles. More range of conditions. As practical and pleasurable recently the American Society of Landscape landscapes for people of all ages and all abilities, Architects (ASLA) and other bodies have these gardens commonly stimulate the full range contributed to the understanding of design of senses including memory, hearing, touch, elements for therapeutic landscapes. AHTA’s smell and sometimes taste as pleasurable Board approved the document, Therapeutic alternatives to the visual experience of gardens. Garden Characteristics, which still stands Stenzel Healing Garden at Legacy Good The therapeutic garden exploits the most Samaritan, AHTA’s 1998 Therapeutic Garden complete range of people/ interactions and today as the benchmark for HT, landscape Design Award recipient supports all rehabilitation and health practitioners. Citing this AHTA therapies including HT, patients, visitors and experiences possible within its enclosures. employees 24-7. It is a public garden. resource, the following elements represent Recognizable placemaking: Therapeutic current practices for therapeutic gardens: 7 gardens are frequently simple, unified and easily comprehended places. An intensified recognition of garden “Scheduled and programmed activities: A horticultural therapy patterns and garden experiences enhance the unique identity of 1 program guiding and promoting a program of activities and a garden as a special place for the people it serves. Placemaking, experiences in the garden is ideal. However, even in gardens designed an important strategy in all landscape design efforts, heightens the for the passive/independent enjoyment by visitors, special events visitor’s focus on plant-related sensuality, comfort, and independence increasing the number of visits, classes encouraging routine garden experienced within a therapeutic garden.” tasks, and publicizing activities of all kinds familiarize special populations, facility staff, families of clients/patients/residents and nearby community Conclusion residents with the garden. Understanding the characteristics of therapeutic gardens is Features modified to improve accessibility: Garden elements, pertinent to every clinician and student’s professional knowledge 2 features and equipment are all selected or modified to provide base. The periodic review of AHTA’s standards of practice re accessible places, activities and experiences to the greatest extent therapeutic garden characteristics helps to address practices to possible. Each modification to the therapeutic garden environment eases the task of and or enhances the horticultural experience for meet healthcare’s changing expectations for improved patient the visitor/ enabling them to see and even to study plants, to care and efficient and effective resource management. Continued touch or smell them, to encounter the luxuriant garden growth in their research studies will help contribute to evidence based research own way, on their own terms and at their own pace and further implementation of best practices. Well defined perimeters: Edges of garden spaces and special References 3 zones of activities within the garden are often intensified to redirect the attention and the energies of the visitor to the components and American Horticultural Therapy Association (1995). Therapeutic displays within the garden. Gardens Characteristics. Retrieved December 12, 2012 from A profusion of plants and people/plant interactions: Therapeutic http://ahta.org/sites/default/files/attached_documents/ 4 gardens introduce individuals to planned, intensive outdoor TherapeuticGardenChracteristic_0.pdf environments in which the conscious provisions of spaces and places American Society of Landscape Architects (2012). Healthcare for restoration, education, therapy, and for social exchanges are organized into legible and verdant, plant-dominated open spaces and Therapeutic Design. Retrieved Jan. 9, 2013 from http://www. with simple patterns of paths and workplaces. The garden promotes four asla.org/ppn/Article.aspx?id=3308&terms=therapeutic%20 seasons of sensory stimulation. garden%20design

A QUARTERLY PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAN HORTICULTURAL THERAPY ASSOCIATION VOLUME 41 | NUMBER 2 3