- Title
- Family members' experiences of a "fairy garden" healing haven garden for sick children
- Creator
- van der Riet, Pamela; Jitsacorn, Chaweewan; Junlapeeya, Piyatida; Thursby, Erin; Thursby, Peter
- Relation
- Collegian Vol. 24, Issue 2, p. 165-173
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.colegn.2015.11.006
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2017
- Description
- Background: Hospital facilities that can support the well-being of sick children and their families by providing an environment outside of the paediatric ward can be beneficial to health outcomes. Access to a garden environment that allows young patients and their family to engage with natural and built features has been shown to relieve stress, provide opportunities for educational activities, improve socialisation amongst children and adults and so create a more calming and supportive environment to help the healing process. Aim: To explore experiences of family members of sick children who have participated in formal and informal activities in a child-centred environment called a "Fairy Garden" (FG) within a hospital in northern Thailand. Method: Narrative inquiry situated within qualitative research was selected as a methodology to capture the holistic notion of the participant's experience. Eight family members (seven parents and one grandparent) were interviewed in four focus groups. Interviews were carried out over a 5-week period in June 2013. Findings: Findings show that the Fairy Garden (FG) offers a therapeutic modality of healing that improves the quality of life for sick children and includes storylines of happiness and relaxation, cooperation from the children, social interaction and learning. For family members the FG provided opportunities to relax with their sick child, watch as their child played in the garden and explored the variety of natural and built features and encouraged their child to eat. The FG allowed contacts to occur amongst family members of sick children, share information, prepare meals and spend time sitting and walking around the garden while waiting while their child received treatment. Conclusion: Through family members stories we were able to capture numerous storylines of the FG creating a space for children and families that counter balances the clinical environment of hospital as an alien place and results in an improved hospital experience for sick children and their families.
- Subject
- narrative; storylines; therapeutic modality; happiness and quality of life
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1387444
- Identifier
- uon:32605
- Identifier
- ISSN:1322-7696
- Rights
- © 2017. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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