Therapeutic Landscapes

Last week I was fortunate to attend and offer a small Forest Therapy walk following a symposium on The Transformative Properties of Horticulture, sponsored by the Madison Square Park Conservancy. The symposium featured inspiring speakers engaged in breathtakingly impactful work.

Naomi Sachs, a professor of therapeutic landscape architecture at University of Maryland and founder of the Therapeutic Landscapes Network, a resource for gardens and landscapes that promote health and well-being, spoke about "restorative landscapes" and the importance of providing access to nature in healthcare settings. Hospitals are stressful places where patients and their visitors are at their most vulnerable. “Health”, she added, is not just “not being sick”. It is also about physical, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing, which is enhanced by natural environments. She described the notion of “restorative landscapes”, which are landscapes that promote health and wellbeing, and could be as simple as a fire escape or memorial--any place that where a person can find peace and solace.

Sachs described the many scientific and medical studies supporting the beneficial impact of nature, including—among medical patients—more rapid recovery from surgery, reduced patient complaints, and reduced need for medication, and--among the general population--improved memory and attention and a reduction in ruminative thoughts.

Gwenn Fried, Manager of Horticulture Therapy Services at NYU Langone Medical Center, then spoke about therapeutic horticulture in public spaces and underscored the value of targeting the certain populations that can most benefit from it, including:

• Special Needs children: Fried noted that families often are reluctant to bring Special Needs children into public places like parks out of concern they may act out and the stigmas associated with this behavior. Thus, these children frequently do not receive the benefits of time in nature. She added that Special Needs is a broad category that includes individual with physical, developmental, behavioral, emotional, and sensory differences;
• Adults experiencing stress: Stress, Fried said, can be defined as “the perception of a lack of control”;
• Cancer patients;
• Individuals experiencing chronic pain;
• Differently-abled people, including the newly disabled;
• People living with or in recovery from mental illness;
• People suffering from anxiety or PTSD, which is rampant among a population much broader than veterans. Individuals experience tragedy that others don’t know about, which can cause ruminative thoughts. News stories about school shootings can trigger anxiety in students. Yet mental health services are often not available or adequately available to those in need of them;
• Senior citizens, including the frail elderly.
• The dementia population, where individual tend to live in the present moment and can make emotional and procedural memories;
• Isolated individuals: loss of community is increasingly prevalent in our culture, and beyond this, one’s social circle typically becomes smaller as we age.

Fried described the features that make a park a “therapeutic environment”. They include:

• A sense of safety and security;
• Well-define perimeters;
• A contained space for programing;
• No “fish bowl” effect (that is, the people can’t be readily observed by passersby);
• Good lighting;
• A noise buffer;
• Accessibility, including pathways;
• Shelter from the elements if needed; and
• Restrooms.

Fried then cited examples of therapeutic landscapes, such as the Portland Memory Garden, which was designed for dementia patients. The Singapore Parks Department has developed three therapeutic parks, consistent with the intent to transform Singapore into a biophilic environment. Closer to home, Riverside Park offers 12 playgrounds, all of which are accessible and six of which feature swings designed specifically for special needs children. Carl Schurtz Park, in collaboration with a local grade school, developed an area that is welcoming to children with autism and other special needs. Fried also described a developing trend in enabling groups to “reserve and hour” in a park area, which would allow social services agencies and others to offer programing that connects people with natural environments.

Regina Ginyard and Jenn Hertzell then engaged the audience in a networking activity focused on green spaces that give people joy. Ginyard is a founding member of Black Urban Growers (BUGS), an organization committed to "building networks and community support for growers in both urban and rural settings." Jenn Hertzell is a Bronx-based farmer and founder of At the Rood: An Herbal Eastery, Farm, and Apothecary that exists to create opportunities for people of the African Diaspora to hear their relationships with their bodies and with the earth.

How fortunate we are that scholars and practitioners like Sachs, Fried, Ginyard, and Hertzell are improving lives through the transformative properties of horticulture.

Stay tuned for my next blog entry to learn about what Amos Clifford said at the conference.

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