Staff Perspectives on the Targeted Incorporation of nature-based Interventions for Children and Youth at a Residential Treatment Facility

ABSTRACT

Nature-based interventions that incorporate animals and the natural environment in therapeutic settings are increasingly common. However, there is a gap in understanding the intervention qualities that may facilitate treatment goals. To help answer this question, we analyzed interviews of 78 staff members at a residential and day treatment school that is an established leader in nature-based interventions. When reflecting on interventions, staff highlighted qualities such as delayed or immediate gratification, sense of safety or fear, and grounding or stimulation. Interventions were often described as offering qualities which could support more than one treatment goal. For example, a dog might provide immediate gratification by approaching a quietly seated student, or their presence could help a student feel safer in therapy. Each quality also displayed a subjective component: while one student might find time with horses grounding, another could benefit from the opportunity to manage the stimulation experienced by the horse’s smells and sounds. Further research into understanding qualities of nature-based interventions and how practitioners might elicit them from a variety of intervention types is warranted.

KEYWORDS:

• Animal-assisted therapy
• nature-based interventions
• green care
• children and youth

Practice implications

• When integrating nature-based interventions, experienced staff selected resources based on qualities rather than breed or type.

• Qualities staff considered included delayed or immediate gratification, type of emotional experience elicited, familiarity, and stimulation.

• Staff at other sites could use what they can access – even spiders or a plant – to support students.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

CRediT

Jaci Gandenberger: Conceptualization, methodology, validation, formal analysis, writing – original draft, writing – review & editing, project administration Marisa Motiff: Conceptualization, validation, formal analysis, writing – original draft, writing – review & editing, visualization Erin Flynn: Conceptualization, methodology, validation, investigation, writing – review & editing, supervision, funding acquisition Kevin N. Morris: Conceptualization, writing – review & editing, supervision, funding acquisition

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Anonymous donor [10000 219916]; Green Chimneys Board of Directors [37795B 277603].