As an increasing number of designers and healthcare practitioners utilize nature-based therapy tools, there is a growing need to understand how certain elements within these natural spaces might contribute to heightened therapeutic effects for patients with specific conditions. Crisis shelters that provide healthcare resources to women and children exposed to domestic abuse could benefit from nature-based therapy tools, but a deeper understanding of how these environments should be built is needed. The authors suggest that a close study of patient experiences in gardens built under this context could help expand the medical community’s general understanding of nature-based therapy in general.
To evaluate the efficacy of evidence-based designs used in the construction of a crisis shelter garden for the purpose of nature-based therapy.
Over two months, the researchers conducted post-occupancy evaluation (POE), which included a landscape analysis, observations of physical traces in and around the garden, and a total of 15 interviews, each lasting 30-45 minutes. Interviewees included three social workers, three current and three former residents, the crisis shelter leader, two psychologists, the facility janitor, a weekend guard, and four childcare workers. Observations made during the field analysis were compared with the qualitative data provided through the interviews, allowing the authors to organize primary themes into six resulting categories.
Six primary themes emerged from the POE: inadequate garden maintenance, issues with garden accessibility, low levels of safety and privacy, lack of stimulating sensory input from the environment, the importance of having many varieties of places for children to play, and the need for a balance between social and private spheres within the garden. Comparing interview data with data from the landscape analysis allowed the authors to formulate recommendations for addressing the gardens’ issues, and noted that these recommendations could be applicable to many other therapeutic garden designs.
The authors noted that behavioral mapping or video recordings might have provided valuable insight into the qualitative data analyzed in this study. Data derived from the field observations of “traces” were largely based on assumptions.