My colleague, Dak Kopec, asked me to write a piece on healing gardens for his forthcoming book, Environmental Psychology for Design, and he has graciously given permission to share it with you here on the TLN Blog. Dak is Director of Design for Human Health at Boston Architectural College and has written many books and other publications on the role of the environment in human health. Thank you, Dak!
(more…)Healing Gardens
Enter now! Landscape Architecture for Healthcare Communities awards
June 27, 2014
The stream at Yale-New Haven’s Smilow Cancer Hospital. Design by Towers Golde. Photo by Naomi Sachs
2013 was a momentous year for landscape architecture in healthcare design: It was the first year that Healthcare Design and Environments for Aging held the Landscape Architecture for Healthcare Communities Awards.
The projects were chosen by two different panels of jurors – one for Acute Care (Healthcare Design) and one for Senior Living (Environments for Aging and Long-Term Living). Acute Care and Senior Living project award winners were featured in the December digital issues of Healthcare Design and EFA magazines. Acute Care award winners were also featured in the May/June 2014 print edition and will be honored in November at HEALTHCARE DESIGN14 in San Diego, CA. Senior Living project winners were honored at the Environments for Aging conference in May.
And here’s more good news: They’re doing it again! Submission are due for both categories on July 14, 2014 so get busy with your applications.
This is a terrific opportunity for landscape architects and healthcare facilities with successful therapeutic landscapes to showcase their work, and for everyone else to see the best examples of how it should be done. (more…)
Therapeutic Landscape Colloborations Forum
September 30, 2013
Harvey Zarren Healing Gardens at North Shore Medical Center’s Union Hospital, Lynn, MA
October 17 forum on evidenced-based design
What distinguishes a garden from a healing garden? The main difference is the way in which a healing or therapeutic garden caters to its targeted users such as cancer, rehabilitation, psychiatric, or eldercare patients.
At an upcoming forum at Union Hospital in Lynn, Mass., designers, researchers, and healthcare providers will gather to discuss landscapes in healthcare settings that promote health and well-being. “Therapeutic Landscape Collaborations: Successful Evidence-Based Design” will take place October 17, 9 am -12:30 pm, at the North Shore Medical Center’s Union Hospital.
This presentation pairs healthcare providers, researchers and designers that focus on creating healing spaces and restorative landscapes to promote health and well-being. The experts include physicians, therapists, designers, architects and landscape architects whom will demonstrate down to the cellular level why gardens heal, and explore how different aspects to a healing garden can promote healing in different user groups. Examples of healing gardens will be shown and participants will tour the Dr. Harvey Zarren Healing Garden at the site as a case study. The program is sponsored jointly by The Landscape Institute and The Underground in cooperation with the North Shore Medical Centers Plant Operations Department.
Panelists include Harvey Zarren, M.D., F.A.C.C; Christine Wojnar, Feng Shui Institute of American; Elizabeth Ericson, FAIA, LEED AP; Deborah Gaw, Owner, Garden Scapes Landscape Design; Lisa Bailey, ASLA, Bayleaf Studio; David Jay, ASLA, LEED AP, O+M Weinmayer/Jay Associates; and Anna Pelosi, Lead HRO, NSMC Inpatient Psychiatry Services and Manager of Patient and Family Relations Department.
To learn more about the October 17 forum and to register, send an email to pce@the-bac.edu or visit http://the-bac.edu/news-and-events/events/therapeutic-landscape-collaborations-2013.
To learn more about the Harvey Zarren Healing Garden, visit the NSMC website – you can link from there to a nice photo gallery.
Boston Children’s Hospital’s Prouty Garden under threat of demolition. Guest post by Clare Cooper Marcus
September 17, 2013
The Prouty Garden at Boston Children’s Hospital has served as a tranquil green urban oasis since 1956
The Prouty Garden at Boston Children’s Hospital has, for generations of patients, family members, and staff, served as a much-loved retreat from the clinical atmosphere inside. The garden was created in 1956, sponsored by Mrs. Olive Prouty whose two children had died in the hospital. Now it is under threat of demolition as the hospital looks for space to expand on its very urban site.
A petition to save the garden has already garnered over 6,500 signatures, but they need more! Please sign and help spread the word. Newspaper articles and radio reports (see, for example, WBUR and The Boston Globe) have taken up the story to plead for the retention of this irreplaceable green oasis.
A Scientific American article last year called the Prouty Garden “one of the most successful hospital gardens in the country.” Though though constructed long before our research-based knowledge of the critical issues in hospital garden design – it is almost perfect as a restorative space in healthcare. (more…)
THE LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AWARD FOR HEALTHCARE ENVIRONMENTS – Applications due 9/20!
September 11, 2013
Photo by Henry Domke, www.henrydomke.com
I don’t usually make titles all in bold, but this is such an exciting opportunity, I wanted to grab your attention.
Vendome Group, publisher of Healthcare Design, Environments for Aging and Behavioral Healthcare, is excited to announce our inaugural The Landscape Architecture Award for Healthcare Environments!
Landscape Architecture projects will be featured in a special digital magazine that will reach more than 80,000 readers.
Highlights of this program include:
- An ideal audience: Projects will be seen by Architects, Designers, Administrators, C-Suite Executives within healthcare communities, and more.
- Recognition for exceptional landscape architecture and design within 3 categories: Acute Care, Senior Living and Behavioral Healthcare.
- A low entry fee: Cost to enter is only $350 per project.
- Expert Panelists: A jury of industry experts will choose one winner and runner-up within each of the 3 categories to be published in the digital magazine.
Award winners and runners-up will receive:
- A 2-page spread, at no cost, featured in the digital magazine.
- A prestigious award engraved with the firm and facility names; and
- Editorial coverage in 2014.
All other firms with accepted projects will have the option to include their project in the digital magazine for a nominal fee.
As the Director of the Therapeutic Landscapes Network, I can’t tell you how excited I am about this program. Oh, wait, I just did.
Applications are due SOON – 9/20/13 so pull your material together and submit it!
To learn more, visit: www.healthcaredesignmagazine.com/page/landscape-architecture-awards-healthcare-environments
Going to the hospital and we’re…gonna get married
August 13, 2013
Staff, patients, and visitors enjoy the Les & Betty Krueger Family Healing Garden.
The hospital isn’t somewhere most people plan on getting married. In fact, the idea might be hard for some to imagine. But what if really wanted to get married, and you really couldn’t leave the hospital…where would you choose for the wedding? Your room? Probably not, especially if it’s a shared room. The chapel? Maybe, but not all hospital chapels are that inspiring, and not all are non-denominational. So, how about outside in the garden? A quiet, neutral place away from the sharp corners, beeping machines, and sterile surfaces. A place with fresh air, sunlight, and greenery.
Though there have surely been more, we know of at least three weddings that have taken place in healing gardens at hospitals in the United States. In all cases, the patient was too ill to leave and was determined to say their vows, in the garden.
This quote is from one of the employees at Harrison Medical Center, which just recently opened the Les & Betty Krueger Family Healing Garden:
I was in the garden this morning when a chaplain came in with a patient’s mother. Her son was on one of our surgery floors and was supposed to be getting married tomorrow. His mother asked if they could get married in the garden. They had a huge wedding planned. We then discovered his bride to be was a nurse on one of our units. So I talked with Catering and Security to plan. We are having a small ceremony in the garden and reception on our front patio tomorrow. Catering jumped right in to help with food and setting up the patio. Security is blocking off one of our lots for parking. I cannot think of a more therapeutic or sacred use of the garden than entering into matrimony. Definitely one I would not expect.
Thanks to the landscape architect, Mark Epstein of Hafs Epstein, for sharing, and to Harrison Medical Center for letting us re-print the story! For some more photos of the garden, click here.
Manuscript submitted!
February 10, 2013
Healing garden at McKee Medical Center in Loveland, CO. Photo courtesy of BHA Design
Sorry for the lack of blog posts over the last couple of weeks. Clare Cooper Marcus and I were in the throes of finishing the manuscript for our book, Therapeutic Landscapes: An Evidence-Based Approach to Designing Healing Gardens and Restorative Outdoor Spaces, to be published by John Wiley in Sons in October.
More details to come as the date gets closer, and I plan to post excerpts from time to time.
Here is one, something submitted by a TLN member and quoted in the book:
Having spent many weeks in the hospital left an indelible imprint on the way I experience pain, suffering, and loss within the recognized healthcare environment. Surely this fear and anxiety that one feels in this controlled and somewhat clinical building can leave one feeling more vulnerable, fragile, and scared. Just by being outside and with nature, to smell and touch the plants, reduced the depression and dread. I think more positive thoughts, am hopeful, and if I cry I feel the plants understand and do not judge or cringe.
We’ve been having great discussions on Linked In and Facebook and we generally post recent news and upcoming events there, so if you haven’t yet joined those conversations, please do!
To learn more about BHA Design’s McKee Medical Center, visit their website.
TLN member stories: A healing garden for canines
November 27, 2012
Corrie, enjoying some outdoor respite.
Who says healing gardens are just for people? Thanks to Marijean Stephenson, an RN and TLN member, for sharing this story:
One of my Cairn Terriers, Corrie, recently sustained a serious pelvic and spinal cord injury after being hit by a car. I returned home after working a night shift and found him at my doorstep, just waiting for me. While I was at work, Corrie had dug under the fence surrounding the yard and went out onto the road. He had apparently returned to that same place he had earlier escaped after sustaining his injury and scooted up to the doorstep of my house.
Corrie has been spending the past few days in a large veterinary ICU (Veterinary Referral Medical and Surgical Care) in Indianapolis. His prognosis is surprisingly good: he will not require surgery to repair his multiple fractures, and will eventually be able to romp around the yard like he normally had done. I had thought I would have to euthanize my dog. I still cannot believe this miracle.
After I got off work early yesterday evening, I drove to the hospital to visit him (this place has visitation 24/7). I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Corrie had been taken outside to their “healing garden” area by the veterinary staff. (more…)
Roger Ulrich keynote at Gardens in Healthcare Conference
September 6, 2012
The Children’s Garden at Legacy Health, Portland, Oregon
Gardens in Healthcare: Rehabilitation, Recovery, and Restoration
Friday, Sept 21, 8 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Legacy Emanuel Medical Center, Lorenzen Center
Portland, OR
Dr. Roger Ulrich, a behavioral scientist who is widely known for his research on the impacts of healthcare facilities on medical outcomes, will be the keynote speaker for a one-day conference on Friday, September 21, at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center (Portland, OR). Ulrich and others will address the use of gardens in healthcare settings to promote better outcomes for patients, improved effectiveness for staff and a safer care environment for both.
A large and growing body of evidence indicates that the physical environment impacts patient stress, patient and staff safety, staff effectiveness, and the quality of care provided in healthcare settings. Increasingly, healthcare design is guided by rigorous research linking the physical environment of hospitals to patient and staff outcomes. Like “evidence-based medicine,” where clinical choices are informed by research, healthcare design, too, is being guided by quantitative and qualitative research. Legacy Health System in greater Portland has nearly a dozen healing gardens between its five facilities. These gardens provide a physical space in which patients, family, and healthcare staff may use with specific and purposeful ends in mind.
The Portland conference is suited to therapists, physicians, administrators, nurses, facility staff, and design professionals. By the end of the day, attendees will be able to 1) describe three benefits of gardens for patients, families, visitors, and staff; 2) summarize two research studies to support gardens in healthcare; and 3) outline processes (strategies) to promote interdisciplinary planning, programming, and evaluation of setting-specific gardens
The registration form provides details about conference programming, fees, continuing education credits, and accommodations. For more information, contact Teresia Hazen at thazen@lhs.org or 503-413-6507.
To learn more about the Legacy Health gardens visit, www.legacyhealth.org/gardens.
Touched by nature? Share your story!
August 16, 2012
Great Spangled Fritillaries on milkweed. Photo by Henry Domke, www.henrydomke.com
If you’re reading this blog, then you probably believe in the restorative power of nature, and you have probably experienced it once, or a few times, or every day of your life.
Clare Cooper Marcus and I are writing a book on therapeutic landscapes in healthcare environments (to be published by John Wiley & Sons in 2013), and we are looking to incorporate stories – even just 1-2 sentences – by people who have been touched by nature in a positive way.
We are especially looking for stories about how a connection with nature in a hospital or other type of healthcare facility (nursing home, hospice, etc.) helped you, or a friend or loved one, or a client. Whether you are/were a patient, a visitor, a staff member, or a volunteer, if seeing or being in nature has made your life better, we want to hear about it. Or, were you ever in a situation where you or a family member desperately wanted to view or be in a garden or nature, and there was none? We’d like to hear about that, too.
If your story isn’t healthcare related but still has to do with how connecting with nature has helped you emotionally, mentally, physically, even spiritually, tell us that, too.
If you would like to share your story, please leave a comment below. This also allows others to see and hear each others’ words without having to wait for the book to come out! We will most likely use the “storyteller’s” first name and location, but this is not essential. And if this is too public a forum, you can also contact me through the TLN website: www.healinglandscapes.org/contact.
Please pass this post on to anyone else who might have a story to share.
Thank you!