Document Type

Capstone

Abstract

As the American population continues to age the number of individuals ages 60 and over that will need full-time care will eventually outweigh the number of people 15 and under needing care. The total cost of care for the elderly individual will continue to rise due to an increased need for assist in institutional care. The elderly entering institutional care will experience physical, mental, emotional, and social changes that will influence their overall health and wellbeing. These changes can potentially start a domino effect that can lead to multiple comorbidities and global decline in abilities. Finding ways to promote positive change and improve overall health and wellbeing of the aged individual will be an important step in lowering the total health care cost. The purpose of this capstone project was to design a one day workshop that would demonstrate the importance of incorporating gardening into long-term facilities. The goal was to educate the participants in how to promote positive health outcomes in the geriatric population through integrating gardening into the long-term care facility both indoors and outdoors so that all residents could participate. Within this educational presentation, information on how to expand the gardening concept to promote the development of other activities was included. Other areas addressed were consideration of safety precautions, information on cost and expense, possible activity ideas, and activity analysis. The desired outcome of this workshop was to go beyond the confines of simple gardening to help the audience think outside the box to areas such as benefits to the facility as well as promoting resident involvement.

Publication Date

2015

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