ISHS Acta Horticulturae 790: VIII International People-Plant Symposium on Exploring Therapeutic Powers of Flowers, Greenery and Nature
EVALUATING SURVEY METHODS OF HORTICULTURAL THERAPEUTIC ACTIVITIES FOR INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY |
| Authors: | S. Koura, K. Nagata, K. Yamagishi, Y. Imamura, U. Masaki |
| Keywords: | horticultural therapeutic activities, intellectual disability, survey methods, change of survey items |
| Abstract:
This research was carried out at an institution for the mentally handicapped from October 2002 under the jurisdiction of the institutions for intellectual disability welfare facilities, 'Asunaronosato', in Miyazaki, Japan. We used the list of survey items developed by the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine with regards to group therapy activities and treatment procedures as a reference point at the start of our research. Only the items thought to apply to mentally handicapped patients in particular were incorporated in the evaluation sheet on which we based our study. Both short term and long term goals were set for each client and short term goals were rechecked every four months while the survey was being taken and the activities continued. During the course of our taking regular evaluations, we noticed that improvements should be carried out with respect to both the way information was being collected as well as what was being collected, and improvements deemed necessary were made as the need arose. Therefore, we made changes to the following three areas and approached them with a new mindset for the completion of the project: 1) Goals of the facilities were included, 2) Unrelated survey items were deleted, and 3) The number of survey items was decreased from 37 at the start to 25 and as a result the burden of investigation was reduced somewhat. Clients whose intellectual levels were relatively high took part in interviews and we shared the goals of our horticultural activities with them. We also decided to reduce the number of clients in per group from nine to four or five. We found that survey items could be changed if necessary according to each client. In our research, we recorded every activity in detail and think that important use can be made of such observations. We believe that our activities and the detailed records we took from them will help in making improvements in users’ quality of life, 'QOL', in the future. | |
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