The Arroyo Grande Community Hospital Healing Garden became a reality thanks to the generosity of AGCH employees who collectively donated over $40,000 during the 2007 and 2008 annual Employee Circle of Friends giving campaigns. Many AGCH employees gave a half hour with some even giving up to one hour of their pay every pay period for the entire year for two years in a row. The Healing Garden was also supported by generous community donors, Clark Construction and Jersey Mike’s Sub Shop.
The healing qualities and therapeutic role of nature has been valued for centuries and plays a key role in medicine today. A Healing Garden is a natural space designed in a healing setting that creates a calmness that helps to make people feel better. Studies have found that healing or restorative gardens in a hospital setting can reduce the need for pain medication, reduce the length of hospital stays and improve the attitudes and perceptions among patients, guests, and employees. The goal of a healing garden is to make people feel safe, less stressed, more comfortable and even invigorated. Healing Gardens nurture the spirit while patients receive treatment. Nature heals the heart and soul, things that doctors cannot treat. That is what the Healing Garden is all about.
With this in mind, the Arroyo Grande Community Hospital (AGCH) Foundation established this peaceful healing garden on the hospital campus in the existing center courtyard. In addition to the aesthetic enhancements the healing garden brings to the hospital are a number of therapeutic benefits. First and most importantly, patients facing a critical illness, recovering from surgery or waiting for test results have access to a calm, restful environment for peace and reflection. The Healing Garden is also useful for families visiting hospitalized loved ones and provides a quiet place for hospital staff to take a break and become refreshed before returning to patient care.
The Arroyo Grande Community Hospital Healing Garden is an organic and sustainable garden using diverse and native plants and trees that are as hypoallergenic as possible. Some of the other important elements are peaceful piped in music, several separate seating areas, attention to quiet space for the patient rooms that face the healing garden, drainage, shaded spaces, water elements and recognition of the Employee Circle of Friends. The Healing Garden Committee also incorporated a Peace Pole water feature into the design. A Peace Pole is a hand-crafted monument that displays the message and prayer “May Peace Prevail on Earth” on each of its four or six sides, usually in different languages.
The Arroyo Grande Community Hospital Healing Garden provides several memorial/tribute opportunities including engraved bricks, water fountains, art work/sculptures, and benches. A mural on one of the walls that surround the Healing Garden space, painted by local artist Carol Paulsen also displays the names of the employees who donated to the Circle of Friends during 2007 and 2008.
Engraved pavers, stones and plaques are available throughout the new AGCH Healing Garden – a place of beauty, tranquility and respite for our patients and their families. Your tribute ensures a timeless way to honor someone you love. For details on memorial giving opportunities in our Healing Garden, or any questions, call Montisa Phelan Lopez at 994-5421. To view the form with items to honor someone you love click here.
The Foundation is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit and all gifts are tax- deductible.