The benefits of access to nature have been shown in a variety of settings and contexts, notes Roger S. Ulrich, an international leader in evidence-based healthcare design and a consultant to Legacy Health’s therapeutic gardens program. The Terrace Garden project uses evidence-based design research tools, including randomized controlled clinical trials and other techniques, to document outcomes for mothers in early labor, family members of patients in the ICU, and hospital staff who spend time in the outdoor space. In some cases these groups are compared to matched control groups that don’t have access to the gardens. When that’s not possible, researchers simply observe interactions in the garden.

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