The Peripatetic Gardener Visits a Hospital by Catherine Feldman
In San Francisco this month the Peripatetic Gardener sat through three seemingly endless visits to one emergency room. Great gratitude was due to the medical staff who so graciously and effectively attended the Gardener’s elderly parents.
Dear Demeter, though, how different a hospital was from a garden! “Where is the greenery to provide fresh oxygen to the stuffy rooms?” asked the Gardener. She longed for sunshine to help dispel the known and unknown diseases that contaminated the air and surfaces. While it made sense to her that a 92-year-old man would have a severe vitamin D deficiency, it was an eye opener to learn that so do many of the young interns and residents. Much has been said about the need to improve the food in hospitals; she called now for a discussion of how to make the environment in hospitals more comfortable and healthful for patients, visitors and staff: that is, more like a garden.
there is a whole field of research relating to this. Famous study by Roger Ulrich on people recovering from gall bladder surgery showed that ones looking at a brick wall took longer to leave hospital, needed more pain meds and complained more than those looking at a green landscape…
check out the therapeutic landscape network:
http://www.healinglandscapes.org/
The peace a garden offers is much needed in hospital environments, too. My mother was recently in the hospital and the televisions from other rooms were audible in hers!