New Flower Bed Design and Verification Supporting Horticultural Therapy Classes Based on Behavioral Observation

Abstract

Horticultural therapy improves the elderly’s emotional and cognitive functions and also leads to their social participation and better overall health. We want to know about the problems of implementing horticultural therapy and how to improve it with the flower bed design. “House of Love” is a private nursing home in Taipei and had been the research base in this study. It was found that current horticultural classes heavily rely on teacher-centric and volunteer staff-assisted curricula, often not considering the specific physical and psy-chological needs the elderly usually face in classes. “Elderly Green” is a new design taking the requirements of horticultural classes in to consideration, providing for a maximum of flexibility under varying conditions by modulizing the flower bed. It allowed the elderly to do their gardening in a comfortable and less strenuous manner. “Elderly Green” is a centripetal flower bed design improved equally distributed care for each participant dur- ing class time and increased interaction among the elderly that reduces manpower needs.