Garden Route Therapy

Last week I had a chance to job shadow Tracy Ruffini for the day, a Horticultural Therapist, at Malton Village, a long term care facility operated by the Region of Peel in Mississauga.  I observed Tracy in action delivering horticultural activities to residents, which included preparing large outdoor winter arrangements to welcome visitors and potting paperwhites to be sold at the upcoming Christmas sale. I appreciated Tracy’s use of calming music in her sessions and presentation of beautiful garden images on display on the work table.  It was encouraging to see that the facility was designed with a horticultural therapy program in mind and includes activity sun-rooms, communal balconies and outdoor garden spaces with raised beds and greenhouses.  It’s one thing to read about horticultural therapy for seniors in a textbook, but far richer to see a Horticultural Therapist on-site.  As I am just getting started, I find it enormously valuable to see the work in as many different settings as possible.  On the business side of things, I like to pick the brains of those who have gone before about the process of running your own business and establishing contracts with different facilities.  I suspect this is an area to focus further education for HT students, to ensure we are able to integrate our skills into a market place that can appear to have limited opportunities if you aren’t willing to be creative and create your own jobs.