Nature-based Therapy for Dementia Care

This type of therapy is used as part at a residential care home like The Bill House because it improves mood and cognitive function, provides calm, purpose and engaged senses with sights, sounds and smells that evoke positive memories and regulates sleep and boosts serotonin through exposure to sunlight and fresh air.

The Bill House has a dementia garden designed by an award-winning landscape designer that provides benefits to your loved ones living with dementia.

How dementia symptoms can be reduced through nature-based therapy

Nature-based therapy focuses heavily on spending time outside with dementia residents and is a way of increasing quality of life with specialist dementia care programmes.

Understanding the importance of hobbies and activities, and offering outdoor activities, can have a positive impact on your loved on living with dementia. These activities can include walking and nature exploration, gardening and garden games.

Nature-based therapy also allows your loved ones to socialise with friends and other residents in a residential care home. Fostering friendships and social connections is an important part of creating a community in residential care homes, and nature-based therapy allows your loved one to spend time with others outdoors as they socialise and learn new things.

Care homes can support independence for residents through nature-based therapy, allowing your loved one to spend time doing things they enjoy as part of their daily routine to support their brain health, and mental and physical health.

The value of routine for dementia residents is an important part of nature-based therapy and at The Bill House, our staff can support your loved one as the care needs during the different stages of dementia change.

How nature-based therapy supports dementia residents

Supporting the overall brain health of your loved one living with dementia is a benefit of nature-based therapy, even when supporting your loved one through the later stages of dementia. Nature-based therapy can be used to reduce the symptoms of dementia in your loved one.

By stimulating memories and the senses, nature-based therapy helps to ensure your loved one maintain cognitive function whilst reducing anxiety and agitation and increasing their overall quality of life. Engaging the brain through sensory and memory activities by offering outdoor activities helps to maintain neural connections, improve attention span and delay the progression of cognitive decline.

Creating a sense of independence for your loved one living with dementia allows them to feel a continued sense of purpose and dignity. By offering supervised familiar tasks, such as a daily walk around the garden, carers provide dementia residents with the opportunity to make their own decisions and have control which helps them feel more alert and connected to their past and present day.

Nature-based therapy gives your loved one the chance to connect with other residents in the outdoors, addressing their emotional needs and reducing feelings of isolation. Also, connecting with other family members outdoors can enhance cognitive stimulation and maintain communication skills, including non-verbal communication, which remains an important way to express emotions when verbal abilities decline.

Not only does nature-based therapy support the health and wellbeing of dementia residents, but it can also support creating a connection to positive memories whilst enjoying time in familiar environments.

The Bill House provides specialist dementia support in a residential care home

At The Bill House, we understand the importance of providing the best support for your loved one with dementia, and we offer nature-based therapy programmes as well as other relaxation therapies.

Our staff organise daily walks around our garden and offer an ongoing programme of garden-related events, activities and workshops, which cover everything from the benefit of sensory gardening to horticulture and lessons on attracting wildlife to the garden.

Contact us to see how we can support you and your family as you navigate looking after your loved one living with dementia in a specialist residential care home.