THE IMPACT OF HEALING GARDENS ON IMPROVING PSYCHOLOGICAL RECOVERY OF CHILDREN –APPLICATION ON PEDIATRIC CANCER HOSPITAL IN EGYPT

Abstract

There is an increasing interest in using healing gardens in general hospitals and in pediatric hospitals in particular since it has an important psychological impact on children for instance it reduces stress. The paper focuses on the impact of health care on hospitalized children, theories of environmental restoration and design guidelines for healing gardens in children's hospitals.The paper aims to prove the relation between the design of healing garden and hospitalized children behavior to discover if certain elements of design principles have indeed a positive impact on psychological recovery of children, and if so, what are these elements and how they can be improved.The paper examined the perceptions of 25 children towards the healing garden in the pediatric cancer hospital in Egypt and the results revealed that, 80% of children showed satisfaction toward the garden. 20% of them gave no negative comments. Additionally, fifth likert scale was conducted to identify the impact of healing garden on psychological recovery of children. The results showed that not only 95.6% of 50 specialized therapists and psychiatrists admitted that the communication with nature has a positive effect on psychological recovery of children. The most important survey was made with 50 volunteers who discussed the effectiveness of 25 elements from 6 design principles for a healing garden in pediatric cancer hospital. These principles was agreed on by the volunteers with different percentage sense of control (74.8%), Social support(74.6%), positive distractions(67.6%), sensorial dimensions(53.2%), movement and exercise(60.4 %) and Natural distractions(89.2%).Finally, the paper is concluding that healing gardens have an important role in increasing the communication between sick children and nature, improving cognitive performance and promoting psychological recovery