Green Care as Psychosocial Intervention for Depressive Symptoms: What Might Be the Key Ingredients?

Salomon, Rebecca E.; Salomon, Alison Duncan; Beeber, Linda S.

doi:10.1177/1078390317723710

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Rural areas are one possible setting for informal education, as it provides the potential for focusing on green care activities, that is, the use of nature to produce health, social, or educational benefits, including horticulture, gardening, sowing, pruning, and pet therapy (Sempik & Bragg, 2013;Sempik, Hine, & Wilcox, 2010). Literature shows that regardless of age and gender, walking in green spaces improves self-esteem and mood, by reducing feelings of anger, depression, and tension (Salomon, Salomon, & Beeber, 2018). Contact with the natural environment may also positively influence the individual's perception on life (Cervinka, Roderer, & Hetler, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can a Green Care Informal Learning Program Foster Active Aging in Older Adults? Results From a Qualitative Pilot Study in Central Italy

2019

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Due to population aging worldwide, it is important for Health Care Systems to design new services fostering Active Aging dimensions (e.g., physical health, psychological well-being, social engagement, and lifelong learning). The aim of this pilot study was to develop new services fostering Active Aging dimensions by means of a 12-month green care informal learning program targeting 112 individuals among community-dwelling older people and day care center users. The impact of the intervention was assessed through three rounds of focus groups. Individuals’ perception of the training benefits depended on their health and social condition at baseline. The program improved the social participation and learning attitudes of community-dwelling older people and the perceived well-being and health of day care center users. Green care activities triggered an Active Aging virtuous spiral where learning new practical and relational competencies helped older people recognize their value. Thus, it is recommendable to include green care therapy within the practice of services for older people, especially day care centers.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can a Green Care Informal Learning Program Foster Active Aging in Older Adults? Results From a Qualitative Pilot Study in Central Italy

2019

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“…In essence, this was a form of social farming, as visitors were "treated" by exposure to land and animals, rather than traditional medicines (Gesler, et al, 2004). Today, this town is still known for welcoming people with mental illness and those who are disabled, allowing "patients" to share lives with their host families whilst receiving treatment for their conditions, taking a different approach to traditional psychotherapeutic treatment (Salomon, et al, 2018).…”

Section: Exploring the Development Of Social Farmingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enabling Urban Social Farming: the need for radical green infrastructure in the city

Mitchell

Houston

Hardman

et al. 2021

Cogent Social Sciences

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With the global population projected to continue growing, there are concerns that health services are beginning to be stretched beyond working limits, particularly in the Global North, where many nations face ageing populations and similar obstacles. One suggested radical method to tackle these issues would be to provide access to Green Infrastructure (GI) interventions, including the development of social farms, particularly within urban areas and across deprived communities; enabling conventional health services to be supplemented by nature-based therapy. Social farms incapsulate this ideology, by enabling spaces for farming practices to also be used for therapeutic outcomes: providing care, rehabilitation, and even educational programmes. This focuses around the concept of social prescribing, with activities within social farms, amongst other spaces, such as community gardens and urban farms, acting as non-medical approaches to aid people with mental health or related conditions. Currently, research across social farming and social prescribing is relatively novel and therefore tends to be based in Scandinavian countries or the USA, in which these spaces are more readily available. This paper focuses on the concept of social farming, which has received increased attention in the UK context, particularly within the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) recent 25-year Environment Plan. The paper argues that there is ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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“…e use of nature for the promotion of human health, which is collectively known as Green care, is becoming a promising alternative healthcare practice, especially in developed countries [1,2]. Green care is defined as an alternative therapy that uses the biotic (living) and abiotic (nonliving) components of nature to promote human health and wellbeing [1,3]. Although Green care may be linked to the natural environment, it can also occur in designated facilities such as hospitals, nursing homes, and prisons [4,5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Examples of documented psychiatric or neurological disorders that have been cured or managed using Green care or AAT include schizophrenia, personality disorders, depressions, acute stress reactions, multiple sclerosis, dementia, and bipolar affective disorders, as well as drug addictions [1,2,[16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. Historical records show that Green care was practiced in hospitals, prisons, monasteries, and churches in the Middle Ages, but the practice of this alternative therapy has recently gained enormous patronage in many developed countries including the United Kingdom, United States of America, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Spain, Australia, Netherlands, and Belgium among others [3,12,18,23,24].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Green Care as Alternative Therapy: The Situation in Ghana

Ameade

Amoah

Ofori

2021

Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine

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Green care, an alternative healthcare system that involves the use of nature, is proven to be useful in the management of organic and psychological disorders worldwide. There are various forms of Green care including Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT), a type where animals play pivotal roles in the healing process and is widely used in many developed countries. We assessed the level of awareness and attitude towards Green care among medical students of Ghana. Using a cross-sectional study design and a semistructured questionnaire designed on Google Forms, data were collected from randomly selected 4th-, 5th-, and 6th-year medical students of the University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana. The data submitted by 206 of the students were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, Version 25, and the results were presented as frequencies, percentages, and charts. The association between sociodemographic characteristics of respondents and awareness about Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT) was considered significant at p < 0.05 . The study found that only 7 (3.4%) of the medical students had ever heard of Green care while a higher number of 36 (17.5%) were aware of AAT mostly through movies and television. However, the majority, 122 (59.3%), had a positive attitude towards the introduction of AAT, into their medical training curriculum. Up to 146 (70.9%) of the respondents suggested lectures and practical sessions as their preferred way of acquiring knowledge and skills on AAT. Only the sex of the respondents was significantly associated with awareness of AAT, with females having a better awareness of AAT (28.6% vs. 11.0%, p = 0.003 ). We conclude that awareness of Green care practices among medical students in Ghana was highly inadequate, but the desire of the majority of them to acquire knowledge and skills in this proven alternative therapy makes its future use in Ghana promising.

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Green Care as Psychosocial Intervention for Depressive Symptoms: What Might Be the Key Ingredients?

Cited by 7 publications

References 41 publications

Can a Green Care Informal Learning Program Foster Active Aging in Older Adults? Results From a Qualitative Pilot Study in Central Italy

Can a Green Care Informal Learning Program Foster Active Aging in Older Adults? Results From a Qualitative Pilot Study in Central Italy

Enabling Urban Social Farming: the need for radical green infrastructure in the city

Green Care as Alternative Therapy: The Situation in Ghana

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