Horticultural therapy program for mental health of prisoners: Case report

BACKGROUND: The restricted environment in prison negatively affects psychological health of prisoners, which in turn affects the rehabilitation of the prisoners. Previous studies have shown that horticultural activities were effective in improving psychological health of prisoners. The objectives were to develop a horticultural therapy (HT) program and to determine the association of 12 sessions with participants’ psychological health using case analysis. METHODS: Five cases who were imprisoned at K correctional institution in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea participated in this study. They were diagnosed as a potential risk group of psychological health. The prisoners participated in a HT program once a week (12 weeks, 90 min per session) between April and June 2018 at K correctional institution. The program consisted of cultivation-centered horticultural activities. At the completion of the HT program, depression (Beck Depression Inventory), anger (State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory), self-esteem (Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale), and life satisfaction (Satisfaction with Life Scale) were evaluated. Positive changes were found through observations of interviews, workbooks, and emotional change checklists that were recorded in each session. RESULTS: We observed positive changes in the prisoners’ health conditions measured before and after participating in the HT program. The prisoners who participated in the HT program showed decreased depression (–2.6), and increased self-esteem (+1.2) and life satisfaction (+4.0). CONCLUSIONS: The prisoner rehabilitation HT program was associated with improvements in the participants’ psychological health. Future efforts will be required to investigate the effects of an HT program with a larger sample size to perform statistical analysis for providing convincing evidence.