'Green Care’ is a range of activities that promotes physical and mental health and well-being through contact with nature. It utilises farms, gardens and other outdoor spaces as a therapeutic intervention for vulnerable adults and children. Green care includes care farming, therapeutic horticulture, animal assisted therapy and other nature-based approaches. These are now the subject of investigation by researchers from many different countries across the world.
This book is the result of cooperation by scientists brought together under the COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) programme. It seeks to describe and define green care and to set it within the context of a number of theoretical and practical frameworks including those of psychology, psychotherapy, health promotion, social inclusion and others. The aim is to provide a guide which will help researchers and others to understand the principles of green care and its links with other disciplines and approaches.