Lee A-Young, Kim Soo-Young, Kwon Hyuk Joon, Park Sin-Ae
Plant, Environment, and Health Lab, Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea.
National Institute of Biological Resources, Incheon, South Korea.
Integr Med Res. 2021 Jun;10(2):100495. doi: 10.1016/j.imr.2020.100495. Epub 2020 Aug 12.
The restricted environment in prison negatively affects psychological health of prisoners, which in turn affects the rehabilitation of the prisoners. Previous studies have shown that horticultural activities were effective in improving psychological health of prisoners. The objectives were to develop a horticultural therapy (HT) program and to determine the association of 12 sessions with participants' psychological health using case analysis.
Five cases who were imprisoned at K correctional institution in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea participated in this study. They were diagnosed as a potential risk group of psychological health. The prisoners participated in a HT program once a week (12 weeks, 90 min per session) between April and June 2018 at K correctional institution. The program consisted of cultivation-centered horticultural activities. At the completion of the HT program, depression (Beck Depression Inventory), anger (State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory), self-esteem (Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale), and life satisfaction (Satisfaction with Life Scale) were evaluated. Positive changes were found through observations of interviews, workbooks, and emotional change checklists that were recorded in each session.
We observed positive changes in the prisoners' health conditions measured before and after participating in the HT program. The prisoners who participated in the HT program showed decreased depression (-2.6), and increased self-esteem (+1.2) and life satisfaction (+4.0).
The prisoner rehabilitation HT program was associated with improvements in the participants' psychological health. Future efforts will be required to investigate the effects of an HT program with a larger sample size to perform statistical analysis for providing convincing evidence.
监狱中的受限环境会对囚犯的心理健康产生负面影响，进而影响囚犯的改造。先前的研究表明，园艺活动对改善囚犯的心理健康有效。本研究的目的是制定一项园艺疗法（HT）计划，并通过案例分析确定12节课程与参与者心理健康之间的关联。
五名被关押在韩国京畿道K惩教所的囚犯参与了本研究。他们被诊断为心理健康的潜在风险群体。这些囚犯于2018年4月至6月期间在K惩教所每周参加一次HT计划（共12周，每次课程90分钟）。该计划包括以种植为中心的园艺活动。在HT计划结束时，对抑郁（贝克抑郁量表）、愤怒（状态-特质愤怒表达量表）、自尊（罗森伯格自尊量表）和生活满意度（生活满意度量表）进行了评估。通过观察每次课程中记录的访谈、工作手册和情绪变化清单发现了积极的变化。
我们观察到参与HT计划前后囚犯健康状况的积极变化。参与HT计划的囚犯抑郁程度降低（-2.6），自尊（+1.2）和生活满意度（+4.0）提高。
囚犯改造HT计划与参与者心理健康的改善有关。未来需要进一步努力，以更大的样本量研究HT计划的效果，以便进行统计分析，提供有说服力的证据。
