Step Change Design: 'Why don't we go into the garden'?

We are two Garden Designers with a background in therapeutic gardens who under-took an extensive research project to understand why care setting gardens were not used more actively even when designed to the latest guidance, and particularly for dementia care settings.

This project took us on an extraordinary, and at times challenging, journey into understanding that the role of an organisation’s practices, attitudes and beliefs, its care culture, were key to understanding the level of engagement that residents had with their outside spaces.

This study identified the need for both the Care and Design sector to consider a Care Setting’s cultural practices from the outset whenever taking steps to improve their residents interaction with the garden. This ensures underlying care practices hindering engagement are addressed and that, if physical changes are required, it goes onto be actively used beyond any initial novelty period.  We call this approach ‘Relationship-Centred Design’. http://stepchange-design.co.uk/