RE: Garden for Alzheimer's Patients

Wendy: I think that providing a safe outdoor space is a wonderful
idea...wish we could have such a place for our dementia patients here at
the hospital. Good luck with this project...I'd love to see pictures of
it as you go along. Also, there are some thornless roses available that
would probably be a good fit with your safety goals, so keep that in
mind, too.


Melody, IA (Z 5/4)

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious."    
--Albert Einstein

 --- On Thu 01/29, Wendy Swope < wendyswope@mindspring.com > wrote:
From: Wendy Swope [mailto: wendyswope@mindspring.com]
To: gardenchat@hort.net
Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2004 14:38:26 -0500 (GMT-05:00)
Subject: RE: [CHAT] Garden for Alzheimer's Patients

Thanks for the feedback so far, ladies! <br><br>Melody, we will be
looking for old-fashioned flowers for the reasons you<br>mentioned. We
hope to rekindle those happy but misty memories, or at<br>least the good
feelings associated with them.<br><br><br>Regarding the question, "Who
would be eating these flowers?", I'm afraid<br>it IS the patients. The
garden is fenced, and they are allowed to roam<br>unattended there as
well as inside the building. The nurses on the unit<br>were the first
people to mention that plants would undoubtably be<br>ingested and so
needed to be safe. This facility is, like most, unable<br>to provide
one-on-one, 24-hour supervision. The best the staff can do is<br>try to
patient-proof the environment, keeping them inside the building<br>and
garden but out of storage areas, desks, cabinets, etc., so giving<br>the
folks a place to wander safely.<br><br><br>In my area, only one nursing
home is dedicated exclusively to the care<br>of Alzheimer's patients,
and that's the place that does the best job of<br>keeping tabs on
ambulatory patients. I can't even begin to guess what it<br>costs to
house a family member
there!<br><br><br>Wendy<br><br>---------------------------------------------------------------------<br>Support
hort.net -- join the hort.net fund drive!<br>

    http://www.hort.net/funds/<br><br>



_______________________________________________
Join Excite! - http://www.excite.com
The most personalized portal on the Web!

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Support hort.net -- join the hort.net fund drive!
http://www.hort.net/funds/
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index