View from the classroom window, Chicago Botanic Garden. Photo by Naomi Sachs
Registration is open for the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Healthcare Garden Design Certificate of Merit Program, coming up in May. This is one of the most comprehensive education programs for people who wish to learn more about design for all types of healthcare facilities and populations. This will be my second time teaching there, and it’s thrilling to be among some of the top luminaries in the field. Last year, I was blown away by the caliber of the students and the work they came up with. And all is the most gorgeous setting of the Chicago Botanic Garden. See those windows in the building in the photo above? Yeah, that’s your classroom, and this is your view. Pretty sweet.
The CBG is also holding a 3-day seminar in July, “Healing through Nature: Healthcare Gardens for Veterans and Children with Sensory Processing and Spectrum Disorders.” Click here for more info.
Healthcare Garden Design Certificate of Merit Program
Chicago Botanic Garden, Glencoe, IL
May 9 – 16, 2012
This eight-day program includes case studies, group projects, field trips, lectures, and instruction from experts from healthcare garden-related professions. Working in multidisciplinary teams that reflect the real world of healthcare garden design, your learning will be reinforced through tours of healthcare facilities in greater Chicago.
Who should participate?
Landscape architects, garden designers, architects, and interior designers; healthcare executives, program administrators, development and marketing directors, and consultants; nurses, therapists, extended care providers, and activity and recreation directors; graduate students in related fields.
Healthcare garden design is an emerging area of specialization in which several professions converge to create environments of care. In this professional development program, attendees will discover the many ways gardens provide verifiable health benefits for their patients, staff, and visitors. The multidisciplinary program introduces the latest research in healthcare garden design, demonstrating the benefits of healthcare gardens while providing participants with the expertise, knowledge, and tools to effectively design, manage, and evaluate such gardens. These garden environments of care maximize the effectiveness of clinical treatments for illness and disabilities, and create passive garden experiences that significantly reduce staff stress and absenteeism, improve patient health, increase client satisfaction, and strengthen the bottom line.
Program design
This program will meet for eight days in May 2012. The session includes lectures, group projects, case studies, and field trips. Experts from the healthcare garden-related professions provide program instruction. You will work in multidisciplinary teams that reflect the real world of healthcare garden design, and your learning will be reinforced through tours of healthcare facilities in greater Chicago.
Program content
The program begins with a special full-day seminar on “Gardens That Heal: A Prescription for Wellness,” designed as a starting point for those participating in the full program, and as an introduction for professionals not requiring full certification.
Specific content elements:
- Types of healthcare gardens and their defining characteristics
- Research, evidence-based design, and post-occupancy evaluation
- Passive and active garden experiences for positive health outcomes
- Characteristics of user groups (patients, family, visitors, and staff) and how they benefit
- How to reduce staff stress and increase satisfaction, retention, and recruitment
- Universal design, ADA, barrier-free design, regulations, codes, and specifications
- Integration of gardens into new and existing healthcare campus landscapes
- Connection of outdoor gardens to indoor spaces and therapeutic activities
- Plant selection and use, equipment, materials, safety, security, and privacy
- Construction and maintenance of new projects; performing renovations and redirecting uses of indoor and outdoor spaces, including rooftops
- Management of the garden facility and costs
- How to build winning healthcare garden design teams
- How to succeed in the client-centered marketplace
- Marketing, project proposals, and management; funding and resources
For additional information about the program and to register, visit the CBG website. You can also contact Amelia Simmons-Hurt at (847) 835-8293 or certificateprogram@chicagobotanic.org.