engleski

Plant theraphy as a neuro and physical rehabilitation

Therapy with plants is discipline which uses plants and gardening activities for professional program in therapy and neurorehabilitation of people with special needs. The ultimate goal of these programs is the improved physical and mental health of the individual. The benefits may be seen in four areas - intellectual, social, emotional, and physical development. Plants are a part of the aesthetically pleasing and perceptually stimulating aspects of the environment to which man responds. Plants serve as a stimulus for a direct, specific, positive response for which the human perceptual system is specifically developed. By observation of plant growth and change, man learns about life and acquires an understanding that can be applied to other aspects of life. For instance, as a result of a car accident the woman who has paraplegia and she thinks of herself as a unuseful humen being who "can't even stand up." In plant therapy, she is learning how to stake the plants and realises concretely that she can do something and be very useful. Fruthermore, she starts to experience three things symbolically, learning that other things need support, gaining an interest in supporting a plant and therefore she's being useful to another living thing and she (and by implication, others) feels it is genuinely worthwhile to aid in the support of others who literally cannot stand alone. The profession of plants therapy, gardening or horticultural therapy is one of the treatment modalities (including therapies such as art, music and recreational) that form the adjunctive therapy treatment approach. Plants therapy programs are commonly found in physical rehabilitation facilities, psychiatric hospitals, educational centers for individuals with intellectual defects and similar treatment facilities. Vocational training programs, sheltered workshops, and prisons are also places where professional plant therapists work they way. In many countries, arboreta and botanic gardens are employing Registered Horticultural Therapists to conduct educational outreach programs for professionals and clients in treatment facilities in their communities. First individual plant teraphy in Croatia started in 2003.

plant therapy ; gardening ; neurorehabilitation ; physical rehabilitation

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