Green Care: A Conceptual Framework - Frisk i naturen

communities. In this, much of health and its maintenance is a mysterious
and indefinable process, requiring a ‘leap of faith’ that would not be openly
accepted by much of medical orthodoxy. In this context, for the final few
decades of the twentieth century, “scientific psychiatry” was much in
ascendancy, with widespread use of medication and little consideration
given to other treatments. The parallel quick fix in agriculture was the
introduction of pesticides, insecticides and fertilisers in the second half
of the twentieth century. There is now an appreciation that these “modern
methods” are somewhat limited in their ability to solve complex problems.
Values
A core value of therapeutic communities that is often misunderstood and
therefore under threat, is that of the judicious non-use of medication in
affecting change in mental activity, perception or behaviour. Although
medication can alleviate symptoms, it can be a hindrance to treatment –
and could be likened to spraying ground containing healthy desired plants
and weeds with weed killer, thus killing off both wanted and unwanted
growth. Therapeutic community treatment works in enabling people to
live in a community “untainted” by artificial means of elevating mood
or suppressing other symptoms: the principal therapeutic tool is people’s
relationships with each other and with the whole community.
A clear parallel between green care and therapeutic communities is the
expectation of change, growth and transformation. Apart from the direct
analogy between botanical and human emotional development, the
metaphorical meaning of ‘growth’ is true for both. It is clear that green care
projects which are not specifically set up as therapeutic communities are
often experienced as a transformational process, by those participating in
them both as clients and staff.
Culture
The culture of a therapeutic community has been described in several
different theoretical frameworks. Rapoport, working at Henderson Hospital
in the heyday of ‘social psychiatry’ in the 1950s, described the essential
themes as democratisation, reality confrontation, communalism and
permissiveness (Rapoport, 1959).
56 Green Care: A Conceptual Framework