Horticultural therapy - which encourages a person to visit green spaces and join guided group gardening activities - can have mental and physical health benefits.
This is the interim finding of an ongoing local study, called Effects Of Horticultural Therapy On Asian Elderly's Mental Health.
In the study, therapy sessions are conducted weekly for 12 weeks and then monthly for three months.
Interim findings showed that horticultural therapy improves the psychological well-being of seniors. The participants reported a greater satisfaction with life and felt more socially connected.
"The process of growing plants helps with training the frontal part of the brain, the part that allows us to plan and solve problems," said the study's principal investigator, Associate Professor Roger Ho, consultant psychiatrist at National University of Singapore's psychological medicine department.
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Category(s):Mindfulness
Source material from Straits Times
