Memory and sensory
Creating a journey of enrichment and wellbeing requires structure as well as beauty, says Tony Milne of Rough Milne Mitchell Landscape Architects.
I write this from Tokyo, while we are here visiting our son, Jack. As we wander the city, I am reminded of the delightful movie Perfect Days. Hirayama is very content with his simple life cleaning toilets in Tokyo. A structured routine, punctuated by unexpected encounters that reveal more of his story, and the beauty he finds around him.
While I am also fond of photographing trees, as he is, and there are the many wonderful public toilets, it is the routine, ritual, respect and rhythm we experience that resonates most. Our memory and a full faculty of senses are oft taken for granted. Our current immersion in Tokyo reinforces this.
Seventeen months ago, I received an email that piqued my interest, from Susan Gee and Tracey Hawkes on behalf of the Delirium and Dementia Group at Burwood Hospital in Christchurch. The email started: “We are part of a group at Burwood Hospital with an ambitious plan to redevelop our large internal courtyard into a multipurpose garden.”
I didn’t know Susan or Tracey. I do now: forthright and passionate, they are simply fantastic. Together with a dedicated hospital team, RMM in a pro bono role has been helping in the development of the Ātea Whakaora/Therapeutic Outdoor Area. Post-earthquake, Burwood Hospital was rebuilt in part, with a large outdoor courtyard formed where new buildings meet old. The undeveloped and little-used courtyard had the potential to provide a valuable therapeutic space. Current healthcare planning emphasises the importance of creating a patient-focused hospital with a therapeutic environment that provides physical, emotional and spiritual comfort to all groups of users.
Overwhelmingly, health-related research reinforces that simply viewing certain types of nature and garden scenes significantly ameliorates stress within only five minutes or less. Viewing nature for longer periods not only helps patients to feel calmer, but can also foster improvement in clinical outcomes, such as reducing pain medication intake and shortening hospital stays. Unsurprisingly, studies also suggest that hospital gardens increase staff satisfaction.
A dementia-friendly garden has been co-designed so that patients will experience the space through a wonderful journey of discovery. A journey that doesn’t require them to remember why they are there or where they’ve come from. A journey that follows a brightly coloured path that winds its way through sensory, native, memory, active and hands-on gardens.
A journey that draws patients from one place to the next by interest: structured, yet full of beauty.
