"Green care" refers to farms, gardens, forests and other outdoor environments to promote human mental and bodily health. Proximity to plants, animals, and the landscape can benefit the mentally disabled, psychiatric patients, people with learning disabilities, the chronically depressed, the overworked, the elderly, even criminals.
As European farming tends towards multifunctionality, "green care farms" are cropping up all over the place. Farmers themselves are taking the initiative and establishing farms that play host to a number of different services, from therapeutic to work training to purely social. The focus of the farms varies from country to country, as well. In Norway the farms mostly cater to children and mental patients, whereas in Greece they specialize in services for prisoners and disadvantaged children. In Holland, Belgium, and Italy, farm therapies cover the entire spectrum. The number of these farms runs between dozens in some countries to hundreds in others.
There are a number of successful examples of green care farms in Europe. The agricultural prison at Kassandra, Greece covers 420 hectares (about 10 golf courses). The prisoners there are totally self-sufficient: they plant all manner of crops and fruit trees, raise cows, sheep, and fowl, produce cheese, do carpentry, produce their own food, and handle all of the sewage treatment. Three hundred and fifty convicted felons handle all concerns from production to sales, and with the exception of the salary the government pays to the few hired workers, the operation is entirely self-sufficient. To date, no one has tried to escape, though if they do so, they will be remanded to a traditional, closed prison for the remainder of their sentence.
Because these green care farms mostly are not eligible for funding from mainstream medical institutions, they are forced to cover their own operating expenses, or seek financial assistance from various outside contributors. In order to gain academic acceptance for green care from the medical community and to spur the development of multifunctional farms in Europe, European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST), an international organization comprising more than 200 scholars from 22 nations who are active in different disciplines, has devoted itself to studying green care medical benefits, financial operation, and policy.
(source: Dr. Christos Gallis, COST coordinator)
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