ABSTRACT OF PAPER PRESENTED IN SYMPOSIUMS AND CONFERENCES AND PUBLISHED IN JOURNALS 1990-2001

 

 
GARDEN AS AN ENVIRONMENTAL INTERVENTION IN HEALING PROCESS OF HOSPITALISED CHILDREN

Ismail Said
Associate Professor
Department of Landscape Architecture, Faculty of Built Environment,
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Skudai, Johor
Email: [email protected]
for
KUSTEM 2nd Annual Seminar on Sustainability Science and Management, Environment Détente: Quo Vadis Ecological Economics and Sciences, 6-7 May 2003, Awana Kijal Golf and Country Resort, Kemaman, Terengganu

Abstract

Hospitalisation often erodes the feelings of toddlers and young children causing regressive behaviours and stress, which result in reduced cognitive performance, helplessness, restlessness, crying, anxiety, and elevated blood pressure. Having the ill children experiencing a garden setting, either in a passive or an active mode, can arouse their senses that nurture their inductive and deductive, motor-impulses development and reflective thinking capabilities. These interactions have resulted in psychological peacefulness and adjustment by the children including being more cooperative toward medication, less crying, more active and cheerful, and more obedient to caregivers. The behavioural responses are considered positive clinical outcomes that foster recovery rate of the hospitalised children. Hence, the garden can be viewed as an environmental intervention in enhancing the healing process of ill children in hospital environment.
 

Keywords: therapeutic garden, ill children, psychological well being, recuperation, environmental intervention