Therapeutic Design for Healthcare Environments: A Practical Application at St. Joseph Mercy Oakland Hospital, Pontiac

A New Movement: Hospital-Based Farms “We pay the doctor to make us better, when we should really be paying the farmer to keep us healthy.” – Robyn O’Brien Within the greenhouses and farm fields at St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor, a quiet effort is underway to pioneer a new approach to health care. A Catholic non-profit teaching hospital located on 340 acres, St. Joe’s is home to The Farm, where the therapeutic modality of “green care” approaches wellness through the act of growing food. Patients receive prescriptions for vegetables accompanied by nutrition education and emergency room staff garden together to relieve job-related stress. Inside the country’s first accessible greenhouse, traumatic brain injury patients garden to re-learn motor skills— and take home the fruits and vegetables of their labor. The Farm at St. Joe’sMaster of Landscape Architecture (MLA)School for Environment and SustainabilityUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/167371/3/Shiffler_Katharine_IntegratedSeminar.pd