Abstract
According to 2015 statistics of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, incidence of chronic mental disorder in the general population has reached 121,989 patients, and the number continues to grow. Chronic mental disorders have chronic tendencies throughout the disease course such that even after medical therapy, improvement in negative and residual symptoms is often not seen. Therefore, psychotherapy and mental health rehabilitation are needed to improve patient condition and help them maintain daily function. Community rehabilitation centers provide a range of group courses to improve patient function and skills, while providing support in a warm environment to help curb feelings of bewilderment and loneliness. Horticultural therapy groups are not widely recognized as an effective tool in psychiatric rehabilitation. Hence, with rehabilitation as a group goal in this study, three therapeutic factors were adopted: 1. Interaction: Create interactive situations to facilitate group members’ mutual assistance and sharing; 2. Action: Motivate participants and give them targets that will cultivate their ability to act; 3. Reaction: Demonstrated in a vegetative state, emotionless feedback is provided to participants to promote the achievement of group activity goals.
The main purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of horticultural therapy groups in treating schizophrenic patients in community rehabilitation centers. Taking into account the characteristics and objectives of the research theme, a single-case quantitative research design and qualitative, semi-structured in-depth interviews and observations, coupled with triangulation method, were adopted to gain insight into the inner worlds of the research participants.
The study findings show that horticultural therapy groups are indeed effective in treating schizophrenic patients at community rehabilitation centers. Additionally, the longer the group activity cycle the greater the benefit in improving symptoms of schizophrenic patients. Thus, horticultural therapy is a recommended assisted therapy activity for community rehabilitation centers.
