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