Green care: Effects of animals and plants on the farm in a therapeutic process for people with psychiatric diseases, 2 dr.gr./1 postdr.

This research proposal aims to document effects of farm-based activities (farm animals and plants), called Green care, on adult mental health and various psychiatric diagnoses including eating disorders. Lack of qualitative scientific studies indicates an urgent need for such projects. A three months intervention study assessing psychiatric validated inventories that measures life quality, self-esteem, coping ability, affects, and characteristic symptoms of different psychiatric diagnoses. It will be inve stigated by video analyses to what extent patients develop attachment to and caring for animals and plants, and whether the intervention affects relations to other people. The motivations of patients and therapists to participate in Green care programs wi ll be studied to reduce dropout frequency, making such programs more predictable for the farmer. The intervention study will be designed as a randomised, controlled study with separate groups of patients in animal-assisted therapy (AAT) and horticultural therapy (HT), and a control group. Each patient will work on a farm three hours twice a week for 12 weeks. Questionnaires will be answered before intervention starts, in the middle of the period, by the end, and six months after intervention. Separate que stionnaires for the farmers and the therapists involved will be used. The project draws on experience from a preceding doctoral project on AAT. It will strengthen the priority area on human health issues at the Norwegian University of Life Science (UMB), and also development of multidisciplinary educational programs. Further, it will be an important contribution to a European COST Action on Green care in agriculture. Apart from UMB, the project involves University of Oslo, Uppsala University and Modum Bad , and includes two PhD students in AAT and HT and one postdoctoral fellow. The project comprises an interdisciplinary approach viz., ethology, horticulture, psychiatry and environmental psychology.