POSTER

A. Gosney, J. Swanson-Merrison

The “Growing Minds” program will employ the use of horticultural therapy to positively enhance PEPP program participants inpatient and outpatient recovery experiences. Horticultural therapy, through the use of the an indoor hydroponic micro-gardening system, involves the cultivation, preparation and consumption of herbs, fruits and vegetables as a tool towards the promotion of wellbeing and enhanced recovery outcomes within the PEPP-Early Psychosis Intervention program. This therapeutic engagement modality provides for opportunities to:
-Employ active mindfulness as a means to cope with anxiety and others symptoms of psychosis.
-Engage in positive socialization and create a space for pro-social peer-to-peer interactions.
-Enhancement in participants sense of ability and accomplishment being able to see the results of their labour investment grow before them.
-Participate in psychoeducation related to micro-gardening and incorporating fruits and vegetables into a healthy diet.
-Exposure to luminotherapy during dark and cold winter months.
The LHSC PEPP program will utilize the indoor hydroponic micro-gardening system as a novel and innovative method of delivering horticultural therapy to both in and outpatient participants of the PEPP program.
The system used will be the Nutritower System which will be provided to the LHSC-PEPP program at Cost by Nutritower Inc. Nutritower Inc has no influence in the data collected or the outcomes of the project. Any indoor hydroponic micro-gardening system could be used for the purposes of this project. We do not have any conflict of interest or marketing stake in the Nutritower System or it’s parent company.
The objective will be to enhance patients engagement experience and recovery outcomes with London Health Sciences Centre-PEPP program in a positive manner.
We will gather data on patients subjective experience via the use of self-report questionnaires. The findings of this research, an examination of the project and a sharing of the process for others programs interested in pursuing a similar project will be presented at the EPION conference in November of 2019.