why garden in therapy?

Gardening in therapy - how unusual! Why do it?

* CONS
** Gardening requires, above and beyond the training afforded CF candidates, additional exposure  and additional training (above/beyond SLP grad training), experience, and knowledge of gardening equipment, materials and supplies.
** Gardening also requires knowledge base and skill set for using hardscapes (base soil v raised bed v containers v hydroponics); those SLP's learning by doing may benefit from guidance by professionals in horticultural/design professional to have hardscapes that are desired for one physical setting, selected :
** requires additional knowledge base and skill set for growing plants; horticultural professional as consultants to SLP's
**  _ for pests and their appropriate management
** _  requires physical aptitude to complete typical gardening activities
** _ requires cognitive aptitude to plan and execute garden design
 ** __ dilutes the effectiveness of SLP in the clinical settings where hort is available
** _ challenges any SLP operational or capital budget, already stretched by consumable materials/supplies
**_ a challenge to daily SLP productivity

*PROS
**        it brings increased visibility to the field of SLP, in all the work settings where these professionals exist, in a manner not previously afforded. Increased public visibility may assist the gardening SLP in marketing, fundraising and program development in the larger community.
** gives SLP a laboratory for treatment at the level of participation, where component skills for communication, cognition and swallowing are synthesized into the 'stuff of everyday life'.
**_ A laboratory for swallowing disorders? Yes, since one pivotal variable in treating swallowing problems , is to provide food the person will eat. A functioning vegetable garden gives the SLP clinician options for growing, harvesting, cooking, preparing and presenting the food; a new SLP skill set!
** allows the SLP to tap into physical activities not always seen in the treatment room, but that co-occur with communication, cognition and swallowing to meet a social need
**allows the SLP to market her/his services more easily to patients, family, rehab team, physicians, facility staff and administration, payors, the general public. Are there great gardening therapy outcomes? Get them out there.
** provides the SLP opportunities to expand her/his skill set and knowledge base to interact with the clinical population, using gardening activities in ways not usually available through the clinical process;
** affords the SLP access to innovative and fun activites at relatively low cost; benefits of which can be shared w/ the person served
** empowers the SLP to stress that any real life environment in daily life is a potential therapeutic setting; the skills and imagination of the SLP and her/his colleagues, are the sole limits of such a program.