Green Care: A Conceptual Framework - Frisk i naturen

Table 8.1: Sources of research evidence used in connection with green care
116 Green Care: A Conceptual Framework
I. Effectiveness of specific green care interventions
II. Benefits of the natural environment
III. Benefits of a social environment
IV. Physical activity and mental health
V. Occupation, employment and health
(and adverse effects of unemployment)
VI. Physical activity and physical health
VII. Psychological theories, constructs and frameworks
Much supporting evidence has come from associated fields of research
and has been used in the context of green care approaches. For example,
the psychological theories of Kaplan and Kaplan (see Section 6) regarding
attention restoration in the natural environment are frequently quoted in
regards to therapeutic horticulture and other green care interventions. Other
theories and constructs that have similarly been used with green care (or
have relevance to it) are summarised in Section 6. Evidence from the other
groups in the table is included throughout this report.
8.2 Towards a paradigm shift – greening medical,
psychiatric and social care
Modern critiques of psychiatry clearly illustrate how technological and
scientific progress has been accompanied by a loss of social, psychological
and interpersonal awareness, described by Bracken and Thomas (2001)
as ‘Postpsychiatry’. Bracken has since proposed that we are in the midst
of a ‘mental health revolution’ (see RCP, 2008) which is being led by the
service user and ‘recovery’ movements, and involves criticism of a solely
instrumental approach, scrutiny of the nature of expertise and a reassertion
of values, meanings and relationships as being of primary importance.
Illich (1975) strongly criticised the way in which people’s bodily condition
was made pathological and often worse by over-zealous medicalisation and
“expropriation of their health”. .