A COMPARISON OF THE EVOLUTION OF THERAPY AND REHABILITATION THROUGH THE CARE OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS IN THE UNITED STATES

From the earliest years of treatment, rehabilitation, and/or residential care for individuals with disabilities in the U.S., agriculture has played a role.
In the earliest stages, as today, the activities involved the care of both plants and animals.
However, the goals were often more economic than therapeutic and the setting was rural farms or institutions with adjoining farms.
By the early 1900’s as the U.S. became more urbanized the emphasis gradually began to shift from production to therapeutic values and from farms to medical settings and included more pets and ornamental plants rather than food crops.
A chapter prepared for the book Farming for Health addressed the evolution of both heath care and farming (Relf, 2006). This paper will trace the evolution of the therapeutic modalities with consideration of their goals, research, applications, and professional development.
It carries the concepts further to consider the factors that must be addressed to move horticulture forward as a widely recognized professional therapeutic modality.

XXVII International Horticultural Congress – IHC2006: International Symposium on Horticultural Practices and Therapy for Human Well-Being

P.D. Relf

horticultural therapy, therapeutic horticulture, animal assisted therapy, service animals

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2008.775.12