Social Prescribing for Healthy Aging: Community Garden Integration in Gerontological Nursing Practice
Overview
This assignment proposes an educational campaign on social prescribing for older adults, using community gardening as a primary intervention to address social isolation and promote holistic health. The paper outlines a one-hour interactive workshop design targeting community-dwelling adults aged 65+ and their caregivers, demonstrating how non-clinical community resources can complement traditional clinical care in gerontological nursing.
What this coursework covers
- Introduction to social prescribing as health promotion strategy in gerontological nursing addressing social isolation
- Workshop design and implementation including 15-minute presentation on social prescribing benefits and community gardening as green prescription
- Hands-on planning activities and resource distribution with pre/post-workshop surveys for effectiveness evaluation
Preview
Individual Assignment Option 1: Gerontology Specialty
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Individual Assignment Option 1: Gerontology Specialty
Social prescribing represents an essential health promotion and prevention strategy in gerontological nursing, particularly for addressing the growing challenge of social isolation and its impact on the physical and mental well-being of older adults. The campaign centers on the theme “Social Prescribing moves the patient out of the greenhouse and back into the community garden.” This illustrates how traditional clinical care, usually likened to a controlled greenhouse environment focused on symptom management, can be expanded through referrals to non-clinical community resources, such as therapeutic gardening programs, to foster holistic health, independence, and social connection in everyday community settings.
In gerontological nursing, health promotion-related needs for older adults include combating loneliness, enhancing quality of life, promoting physical activity, and supporting self-care autonomy amid multimorbidity and age-related changes (Eliopoulos, 2022). Social prescribing aligns directly with these needs by linking patients to community assets like gardening groups, which provide nature exposure, peer support, and purposeful activity to reduce isolation and improve overall well-being.
The information campaign will take the form of a one-hour interactive educational workshop titled “From Greenhouse to Garden: Embracing Social Prescribing for Healthy Aging.” Targeted at community-dwelling adults aged 65 and older, along with their family caregivers, the session will be held at a local senior center or community health fair, aiming for 20 to 30 participants.