78 EVALUATION OF THE EFFECT OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE ENVIRONMENT ON PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH SERVICES FOR YOUNG PATIENTS WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA
Authors: Zhao Dan 
Published: February 2025

Abstract

Background
Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness, in which patients often experience symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions, confused thinking and emotions. Confused self-awareness and delayed responses can prevent patients from engaging in normal social activities. In clinical practice, drugs such as olanzapine, risperidone, and aripiprazole are commonly used to treat acute or chronic schizophrenia, with significant clinical effects. However, their effectiveness is greatly influenced by patients’ medication adherence. Studies have shown that environmental therapy, as a non pharmacological treatment method, has received widespread attention in the rehabilitation treatment of mental illnesses. Therefore, the study relies on the design concept of horticultural therapy and uses landscape gardening environment horticultural therapy training to intervene in the psychological health of schizophrenia, and evaluates the clinical application effect of this method.

Methods
The study selected 30 young patients with chronic schizophrenia as the research subjects, and used randomized controls to divide the patients into an experimental group and a control group. Both groups of patients followed the doctor’s advice to take olanzapine medication, with the control group receiving routine care. On this basis, the experimental group of patients received an 8-week training in landscape gardening therapy. According to the established medical implementation plan, a gardening planting group of no more than five people was formed to focus on greening and maintenance work. Intervention personnel communicate with patients to determine the scope of knowledge such as psychiatric knowledge, learning plant care skills, etc. Therapists evaluate the training effectiveness based on patient feedback. Evaluate the psychological status and social cognition of patients before and after the experiment using tools such as the General Self Efficacy Scale and the Mental Health Assessment Scale.

Results
In Table 1, after the intervention, the scores of the psychiatric assessment scale for both groups of subjects were better than before the intervention (P&lt;0.05), with the experimental group being better than the control group (P&lt;0.05), indicating a significant difference in data.

Discussion
Landscape environment training can significantly improve the mental health status of patients with chronic schizophrenia. The average score of the psychiatric assessment scale after intervention was 62.48 points, which decreased significantly compared to before intervention. However, the decline trend of the psychiatric assessment scale score in the control group was slightly worse than that in the experimental group. Horticultural therapy cultivates patients’ patience and sense of responsibility, enhances their self-esteem and self-efficacy. This healing training process will guide schizophrenia patients to pay more attention to their thinking processes and operational skills. The therapeutic training based on the landscape environment can significantly improve the self-esteem and self-efficacy of patients with chronic schizophrenia, providing new ideas and methods for the rehabilitation treatment of schizophrenia patients.