Dementia can be very detrimental. Therefore, you often find that many organizations and companies like Assured Assisted Living are devoted to providing high-quality services to people suffering from these conditions. These organizations help in creating a safe and tranquil environment for them.
It might break your heart to send away your loved ones to live under the care of some organization, and you might constantly fret about their credibility. However, this is a crucial step because watching them deteriorate in front of your eyes will shatter you in the end.
Alternatively, gardening is also a solution for these people because of its therapeutic values. It induces a sense of peace and serenity. A garden is all you need as a respite. Flying away from worries becomes easy when there is a lush and compelling garden in front of you.
Dementia
Dementia is a long-term condition that has detrimental effects on thousands of individuals’ mental states. It is a domino effect because their families suffer when they see these patients slowly slipping away from them. From memory to communication, everything gets disrupted. This is where horticultural therapy comes in and rescues these people.
For some people, gardening becomes their support in life. All they need to do is take one look at the blur of colors and forget their worries. Gardening is a magical experience for those people with dementia.
Life with dementia can be pretty challenging; however, gardening provides them with sufficient activities to keep their physical and mental cognitive functioning active. It is an opportunity for people with dementia to experience the same vibrancy and vigor they felt pre-dementia.
There are many consequences of dementia, and one of them is losing the ability to achieve things or work you love to do. Gardening helps in improving the quality of lives by alleviating pain and reducing stress levels. This article provides you a deep insight into the myriads of benefits that people with dementia acquire from gardening.
1. It stimulates senses
Dementia is potent enough to affect all five sensory functions. It is heart-wrenching when you see a person with dementia spiraling into this web of darkness. The first sense that gets attacked is the sense of smell. Over time, these people become incapable of recognizing certain odors.
At one point, they lose their ability to distinguish between hot and cold. However, gardening is said to awaken these senses. The feel of the fresh breeze grazing their skin and sheer joy felt in the laps of nature invigorate and activate the lost senses.
Sensory deprivation can be tackled with the help of horticultural therapy. Gardening spaces help these people in growing their own fruits. They can also cultivate and plant flowering plants and vegetables. Staying intimate with nature, watching flowers bloom, and vegetables and fruits ripen is all it takes to resurrect the lost sense of appetite.
2. Augments Attention Period
The most frustrating aspect of dementia is the loss of focus and attention. There is nothing that helps these people stay focused, and the concentration span dwindles as time passes. Besides, once diagnosed with dementia, their careers are terminated suddenly.
Gardening helps them direct focus on a set of tasks, and in this way, it augments their attention span. Getting their hands dirty while digging up the garden or bouncing with joy as they pluck luscious fruits can be a therapeutic and powerful remedy to attention span loss. This way, they will always stay focused and active.
3. Induces Strength
Undoubtedly, gardening is a physical task that requires effort and labor. Engaging in a fruitful physical activity boosts both strength as well as balance. Dementia has an effect on both muscles and the brain in the form of muscle tone loss and sensory impairment respectively.
However, the flexibility and strength that these people gain from gardening help them to counter these detrimental effects of dementia. Simple tasks like digging or trimming shrubs will augment their motor skills and hand strength.
4. Revives a sense of purpose
We all know the importance of a purpose in our lives. People suffering from dementia are often devoid of this purpose. This makes them idle and isolated. During this time, their minds might divert towards a depressing path, and it may ultimately be the last straw that destroys their minds.
Reviving their sense of purpose is the key to making them experience the warmth of happiness. With no career to build, this task might seem quite arduous. However, there is a simple solution that is gardening.
The low mood amplified by frustration is alleviated because of the release of the hormones that spark happiness. Gardening helps these people gain a sense of confidence and responsibility. It makes them feel wanted and valuable. These things are all they need to restore their sense of purpose that was otherwise lost with the whiff of time.
5. A Gift of Social Life
Dementia often proves to be a lonesome experience. Isolation and depression go hand in hand in these cases. Gardening can aid in eliminating this looming sense of loneliness. Therapeutic gardens full of people help these people to socialize and connect with both nature and other people.
These garden spaces bestow meaningful environmental spaces, where these patients can spur conversations and interact with each other. These common interaction spaces help people to evolve out of this complex disease.
A garden is the best place to find like-minded people mingling with each other. It helps people pass their time amidst the lush greenery of nature.
There is no beating dementia, but there is always a way to alleviate its detrimental effects. Gardening in this way is a gift to all those people who want to socialize to get rid of the forlornness and the sardonic thoughts that accompany this bubble of loneliness.
Final Words
Life is not always going to be the same for everyone out there. Many people lose hope out of despair and think that it is the end of their world. However, it is essential to remember that daily activities like gardening can be the one thing that restores every emotion and feeling they have lost in their lives.
Gardening is a treasure-house for all those patients yearning to improve the quality of their lives until their last breaths. Losing hope is never the answer because there is always a door that helps you find bliss.