Abstract
This paper extends the concept of therapeutic landscapes by investigating how green and blue spaces affect older adult health and wellbeing. We draw on interview data from participants aged 65–86 years old who described their everyday experiences with green and especially blue spaces across Metro Vancouver, Canada. Landscapes embedded with therapeutic qualities included parks, gardens, street greenery, lakes, and the ocean. Interactions with these spaces influenced participants’ perceived physical, mental, and social health. Issues of safety, accessibility, and personal perception complicated this relationship. Overall, the findings indicate that nature plays a nuanced and influential role in the everyday lives of older adults. Better understanding how older adults experience health and landscape is critical towards developing everyday contact with nature that can improve quality of life for ageing populations.
Daily contact with nature is beneficial for the health of older adults, says a joint US and Canadian study published in “Health & Place”. Natural environments act to promote physical, mental, and spiritual healing.
Researchers at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis interviewed seniors between the ages of 65 and 86. The participants were considered low-income and experienced a range of chronic conditions.
They found that accessibility to everyday green and blue spaces (environments with running or still water) were associated with a higher quality of life. The natural environment encourages seniors to leave the house. This in turn motivates them to be active physically, spiritually and socially, which can offset chronic illness, disability and isolation.
“We zoomed in to everyday life for seniors between the ages of 65 and 86. We discovered how a relatively mundane experience, such as hearing the sound of water or a bee buzzing among flowers, can have a tremendous impact on overall health,” said study author Jessica Finlay from the University of Minnesota.
While the research may seem intuitive, it gives an indication of how to build communities that serve people across their entire lifetime. “We don’t just need a playground for children, we also need sheltered benches for the grandparents to watch them,” said Finlay.
Finlay, J., Franke, T., McKay, H., & Sims-Gould, J. (2015). Therapeutic landscapes and wellbeing in later life: Impacts of blue and green spaces for older adults.Therapeutic landscapes and wellbeing in later life: Impacts of blue and green spaces for older adults, 34, 97-106. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1353829215000672