Rodiek leads webinar series detailing
benefits of green spaces for seniors

An associate professor of architecture at Texas A&M joined three panelists March 2, 9 and 16 in a webinar series detailing the benefits of green spaces and outdoor environmental design for older adults.

The Creating Home -- Access to Nature Webinar Series was based on "Access to Nature, Planning Outdoor Space for Aging," a three-DVD set developed by Susan Rodiek at the university's Center for Health Systems & Design. The series provides information to health care providers, policymakers, educators, designers and consumer advocates to create healthy, inviting outdoor environments for seniors in residential settings at all levels of care.

The DVDs illustrate how creating green spaces and opportunities to utilize those spaces can be affordable, no matter the size of the organization or the capital budget available, and explored current research findings in gerontology, psychology and design and included comments from residents.

"There's a lot of research that shows spending time outside can have major health benefits for older people," Rodiek said. "If a resident goes outdoors for even five or 10 minutes a day, it can greatly benefit health, mood, sleeping patterns, hormone balance and vitamin D absorption."

Unfortunately, she added, the physical environment is not typically designed to support residents' desire to go outdoors – the problems may be easy and inexpensive to fix, but often are not recognized by facility staff and administrators.

Joining Rodiek as webinar panelists were:

• Shanae Wilbert, director of compliance, Sulik Health Care Services/Sheridan of Navasota, Texas;
• Patrick Smith, landscape architect and vice president of Pi Architects in Austin, and
• Marni Barnes, landscape architect and principal of Deva Designs in Palo Alto, Calif.

See more information on the DVD series.

Visit the Center for Health Systems & Design homepage.

- Posted: March 15, 2010 -