Stitcher
02-27-2008, 11:05 PM
Experts in stress treatment want to send patients back to nature instead of using traditional treatment methods
22.02.2008
http://www.cphpost.dk/get/105846.html
Twittering birds, bubbling creeks, buzzing bees and plenty of sunlight and fresh air, is the cure for stress, say organisers of the first therapy garden in Denmark opening in Hørsholm outside of Copenhagen next week.
The Kalmia Stress Centre (Stresscentret Kalmia) is the result of team efforts by stress experts from various clinics and centres, as well as, collaboration with the centre of forestry and landscape of the University of Copenhagen.
The perks of garden therapy are by no means a new concept, recently however, natural methods have become a valid and scientifically documented treatment for stress.
The world's first garden therapy centre based on scientific findings opened in Alnarp, Sweden in 2003.
Some 80 percent of patients treated at the centre have returned to work or studies after a 12-week intensive stay. This is double the number of patients successfully treated with therapy and medicine.
Experts are not in doubt that there is a part of the brain that longs for a return to nature.
The brain is not catered for storing the huge amounts of information it receives in a city or at a workplace, Ulrika Stigsdottir, lecturer and landscape architect pointed out.
She was part of the Swedish project in Alnarp and will be in charge of the new garden therapy centre in Hørsholm, the first of its kind in Denmark.
Evidence pointed at positive results for patients who were not only in nature, but also had the opportunity of working in it. Residents in the Hørsholm centre will also be offered gardening tasks as a part of their treatment.
Garden therapy against stress has been widely used abroad, especially in the US, Canada, Japan, Britain, Norway and not least Sweden.
The Swedish national ice-hockey team, for example, has its own get-away in beautiful surroundings in the countryside.
In Denmark, other similar endeavours include Rigshospitalet introducing a 6000sqm garden for allowing patients some respite from their hospital beds. In Århus, EU-subsidies are used to send stress patients on gardening cures.
22.02.2008
http://www.cphpost.dk/get/105846.html
Twittering birds, bubbling creeks, buzzing bees and plenty of sunlight and fresh air, is the cure for stress, say organisers of the first therapy garden in Denmark opening in Hørsholm outside of Copenhagen next week.
The Kalmia Stress Centre (Stresscentret Kalmia) is the result of team efforts by stress experts from various clinics and centres, as well as, collaboration with the centre of forestry and landscape of the University of Copenhagen.
The perks of garden therapy are by no means a new concept, recently however, natural methods have become a valid and scientifically documented treatment for stress.
The world's first garden therapy centre based on scientific findings opened in Alnarp, Sweden in 2003.
Some 80 percent of patients treated at the centre have returned to work or studies after a 12-week intensive stay. This is double the number of patients successfully treated with therapy and medicine.
Experts are not in doubt that there is a part of the brain that longs for a return to nature.
The brain is not catered for storing the huge amounts of information it receives in a city or at a workplace, Ulrika Stigsdottir, lecturer and landscape architect pointed out.
She was part of the Swedish project in Alnarp and will be in charge of the new garden therapy centre in Hørsholm, the first of its kind in Denmark.
Evidence pointed at positive results for patients who were not only in nature, but also had the opportunity of working in it. Residents in the Hørsholm centre will also be offered gardening tasks as a part of their treatment.
Garden therapy against stress has been widely used abroad, especially in the US, Canada, Japan, Britain, Norway and not least Sweden.
The Swedish national ice-hockey team, for example, has its own get-away in beautiful surroundings in the countryside.
In Denmark, other similar endeavours include Rigshospitalet introducing a 6000sqm garden for allowing patients some respite from their hospital beds. In Århus, EU-subsidies are used to send stress patients on gardening cures.