The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #41489

Katherine N. Irvine, School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, 430 East University, Dana Building, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1115, 734/998-7715, kirvine@umich.edu and Sara L. Warber, MD, Complementary and Alternative Medicine Research Center, University of Michigan, 715 E. Huron St. Suite 1W, Ann Arbor, MI 48104.

While health is an obvious goal of allopathic medicine, many healthcare settings are neither nurturing nor healing environments. As healthcare undergoes a transformation, incorporating holistic connection-based healing along with highly technological, specialty-based medicine, the physical settings in which medicine is practiced need to be rethought as well. One possible solution is the emerging movement to bring nature, in the form of gardens, into healthcare settings We review the literature related to the health benefits of nature using four components of optimal health as a framework: physical, psychological, social, and spiritual. Additionally, we report on an initiative to incorporate a healing garden into the University of Michigan Medical Center. Historically, therapeutic gardens were a part of health care practice. Recent research provides evidence for how interaction with nature can impact health. Symptoms of stress, such as increased blood pressure and heart rate, are counteracted through viewing nature. Interaction with nature also positively effects job satisfaction, reduces domestic violence, increases social interaction, eases attention fatigue, and leaves one with a feeling of wholeness and connection. Healing gardens are a recognition that the environment of a health care facility is as much a part of the therapeutic effect as the expertise, contents, and procedures encountered within the building. Healing gardens move us a step closer to the creation and preservation of natural settings where patients, family, and health care providers can find the elements necessary for the transformation from illness to optimal health.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this presentation, participants will be able to

• Describe the healing garden movement and its relevance to healthcare.
• Identify four ways in which interaction with the natural environment might promote well-being.
• Gain insight into the broader implications of nature-interaction for health promotion.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.