Return to Main Menu

Therapy gardens healthy for plants, patients  by Bob Raynor Institute of Psychiatry While the simple processes within a garden setting facilitate a positive focus worthwhile in its own right, excellent metaphors reside there to explore deeper issues of healing and recovery—metaphors like growth, pruning and tilling. Recreation therapist Bob Raynor discusses care of the Institute of Psychiatry’s therapy gardens with activity staff members Leslie Stewart of 2 North, from left, Marietta Smalls of STAR North and Melanie Warfuel of 3 North. As part of their path to recovery, IOP patients plant and care for the gardens which are sponsored by the Charleston Garden Club.  Nurturing plants appears to have a reciprocal effect in nurturing ourselves. For that reason a number of programs in the Institute of Psychiatry (IOP) are currently working in the gardens: the inpatient unit for the Center for Drug and Alcohol Programs (CDAP), groups from the inpatient general psychiatric floor, a youth inpatient unit, an outpatient youth day program and a CDAP intensive outpatient program.  While patients are able to enjoy on a daily basis the aesthetic benefit of the planted spaces in the IOP Park, therapy groups regularly experience the gardens in active therapy through hands-on participation.  We began the gardens in the IOP in the spring of 1997, and the Garden Club of Charleston began its support soon after. The club has provided annual funds through an account at Cross Garden Center for supplies, including seeds, plants, fertilizer, bird seed and gardening equipment. At the 10th anniversary of the IOP, the club purchased a trellis, which was installed during a patient group session, to provide an entrance to our quiet garden. Also, in the quiet garden is a multi-tiered fountain purchased by both the club and the Health Sciences Foundation. Club members have intuitively understood the therapeutic aspects of gardening from their own experience. Ongoing tasks during our groups include tilling and building the soil, starting seeds, planting young plants, watering, fertilizing, pruning, dead heading, composting and raking, to name a few. Benefits noted by patients include relaxing, calming and tension release, team effort, achievement and fulfillment.  Therapy garden tucked away behind IOP. The gardens have grown since putting in the first semicircular space in 1997. The quiet garden was the next addition, an area shaded by existing elm and hackberry trees, and planted with Leland cypress, red bud, dogwood, fatsia and ferns. A working garden has beds containing both vegetables and annuals, and flanked by barrels also containing annuals. Running along the building adjacent to the walkway and large grassy area are planting of butterfly bushes flanked by two special trees: a casseia and a Jerusalem crown of thorns. Other help has come for the ongoing interaction and support of Tom Thurman and his grounds crew. Tom and his skilled staff have appreciated and helped us in a supportive role. Recently Julian Smith, director of the Wellness Center, gave the gardens a Japanese maple to fit into a final opening in the quiet garden.     Friday, Nov. 19, 2004 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to petersnd@musc.edu or catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Community Press at 849-1778.