Horticultural therapy in Japan-History, Education, Character, Assessment-

Abstract

Horticultural therapy (HT) is defined as a process through which plants, gardening activities, and the innate closeness we all feel toward nature are used as vehicles in professionally conducted programs of therapy and rehabilitation. HT became well-known in Asian countries such as Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and China recently. Those Asian countries are faced with aged or aging societies. In Japan, HT was introduced and spread by citizens who learned or were interested in it. Awaji Landscape Planning & Horticulture Academy is a very unique academy established by Hyogo Prefecture in 1999. It has Horticultural Therapy Course which was established in 2002 after the Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in 1995. It is the only one course in Japan to train horticultural therapists authorized by a local government. The mission of Horticultural Therapy Course is to train the experts who can heal people in need of support by means of plants, the greenery environment and gardening activities and eventually to reciprocate people’s favors and assistance from all over Japan and the world. The needs for HT are increasing little by little in many fields: medical care fields (rehabilitation hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, palliative care institutions, etc.), welfare facilities for (the elderly, people with mental disabilities, people with intellectual disabilities, etc.) and educational institutions (nursery schools, elementary schools, junior high schools, high schools, special-needs schools, etc.). Horticultural therapists utilize the greenery environments, plants, peoples around clients. To know the characteristics of horticulture/gardening is indispensable for them. Horticulture/gardening has some characteristics: stimulating the five senses, visible accomplishment, composed of plain actions, many chances to go outside, developing empathy. The psychological effects of HT are：(1) stress reduction, (2) regain of confidence, (3) recovery of self-affirmation (useful sense of self), (4) stimulation, preservation or recovery of mental functions etc. The physiological or social effects of HT are: (1) prevention of disuse syndrome of body functions, (2) reduction of sensations of pain, (3) improvement/preservation of ability of body functions and for activities such as learning, execution of task, communication etc. To gain beneficial effects on the clients, appropriate assessment is absolutely necessary. Our assessment method based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and an original measure “Awaji Horticultural Therapy Assessment Sheet” (AHTAS) to capture the state of the client objectively during each HT activity are introduced.