Therapeutic garden provides holistic setting for hospital’s patients, staff
By Jennifer Schmidt
S
t. Joseph’s Hospital is committed to providing skilled,
compassionate care to all who walk through its doors. The 193-bed
Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, hospital prides itself on treating the
whole person – the mind, body, and spirit. Wanting to further its quest
to help and heal, the facility’s staff started exploring the addition of a
therapeutic garden to its grounds.
The hospital conducts a “colleague campaign” every one to two years
to support hospital improvements. In 2010, the facility’s 12-member
Colleague Task Force met to discuss its next project. After discussing
the many suggestions that had surfaced, one kept coming back: a healing
garden.
“As we progressed through the conversation, we identified the front
area – a big, front, empty lawn area of the hospital – and how nice it
would be to have that developed into a healing garden,” said Bobbi Giles,
the hospital’s director of development. “At the time we didn’t really know
what a healing garden was, but we just knew we wanted more than what
was there.”
Plant Services Director Roger Elliott felt strongly that the work
should be done professionally, and through his involvement with the
Wisconsin Healthcare Engineering Association, he was referred to Phil
Johnson, a landscape architect at Ayres Associates.
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