Imagine a care home where
the garden is not simply something to look at through the window, but a valued
part of everyday life. The Care Culture Map and Handbook is an evidence-based
care home management resource and culture change tool designed to help care
homes, care settings and care organisations understand what may be limiting
residents’ access to the outdoors, and how positive changes in everyday care
culture, person-centred care and care home activities can unlock more
meaningful engagement outside.
Drawing on in-depth research
into why care home gardens, dementia gardens and care setting gardens are not
always actively used, this practical and visually accessible tool supports care
home managers, activity leads, care teams and health and social care
professionals to explore the subtle routines, assumptions, health and safety
concerns, open-door policies and organisational barriers that can stand between
residents and the garden. Through the easy-to-use Care Culture Map,
supporting Care Culture Handbook and infographic poster, teams are
guided into open conversations, shared reflection and achievable action
planning.
At its heart, the resource shows
how organisational culture change, person-centred care, dementia care, meaningful
activity and outdoor engagement are closely connected. It helps care settings
build confidence, improve care practice and support residents — including those
living with dementia — to enjoy the proven health and well-being benefits of
time outside, sensory gardens, therapeutic gardens and everyday access to
nature.
For care homes considering
physical changes, sensory garden improvements or a full care home garden design
project, the Care Culture Map and Handbook also helps clarify what is
really needed before involving outside specialists. By strengthening the brief
and supporting a more Relationship-Centred Design approach, it lays the
groundwork for actively used care home gardens, dementia friendly gardens and well-being
gardens that are meaningful, cost-effective and valued over the long term.
This resource includes the
following:
- 'Care Culture Map' diagnostic poster tool, folded like an
OS Map
- 'Care Culture Handbook' Spiral bound, 48pp,
- 'Infographic poster', A3 folded to A4.
Table of Contents:
This Handbook is divided into five sections. Each section builds on the previous one and takes you
deeper into the use of the Care Culture Map and its functionality.
Our Journey
Dandelions, daisies and designers
Our key findings
The Care Culture Map
The Care Culture Spectrum
It's the focus on the resident that drives culture change
Its not just what you do but how....
The Care-Culture Spectrum
Task-oriented practices
Person-centred care
Relationship-centred care
What happened to Scotty Dog?
Our invitation to the Care Sector...
Our invitation to Garden Designers and Other Outside Specialists...
Looking at the Care Culture map
What does a map do?
Why create a map of care culture?
What is the care culture map?
Positive images
The columns
The boxes
Reading the Map: vertically and horizontally
THEME: The 'Anatomy' of The Map
Getting Started
Why is it important to identify your current care-culture position?
Involve everyone in this activity
Keeping notes
The journey starts with honesty
Valuing your outside space
Locating your current care-culture position
The limits of your current care practices
A horizontal band
'Spikes'
Planning your route ahead
It's your journey
Don't be tempted...
TOOL: The Four-Point Checklist
TOOL: The Activity Audit
Moving Forward
Where are you starting from?
Where do you wish to go?
Focus on the lowest boxes
Reaching the peaks
What does progress look like?
Working on a theme
Changing culture is hard work
Controlling the pace of change
Garden Designers and Specialists
Investing wisely in your outside space
Relationship-centred design
Care setting and outside specialists - a working relationship
Map Themes
The choice is yours
Don't leap too far ahead
THEME: Key Principles
THEME: The Health and Safety Column
THEME: Open Door Policy
THEME: Subtle Steps
THEME: Weather Aware and Weather Ready
THEME: Activity is Everyone's Job
The Hidden Dangers
The Hidden Dangers Centred around Person-Centred Care
The 'Reverse' Hidden Danger - The Influence of Garden Designers and Specialists
Conclusions and Findings
About the authors
Index and Acknowledgements
About the Author :
Debbie Carroll and Mark Rendell are
both Garden Designers who teamed up to find the answer to a deceptively simple
question they had "Why aren't care gardens more actively used?" This
is the subject of their series of books and tools in the 'Why don't we go
into the garden?' series. Their research project grew to be one of the
largest of its kind in the UK and took them into new territory (for garden
designers) deep inside care settings. They founded Step Change Design to share
their findings and promote their new design approach, 'Relationship-Centred
Design', with both the care and design sectors.
Debbie Carroll is passionate about gardens being actively used. Her
20years of designing across a range of settings has always been driven by the
belief that ‘the gardens that last are the gardens that are loved’, and it is
this very human factor that resonates throughout their books. Debbie is
an Accredited Garden Designer with the British Association of Landscape
Industries, Special Adviser on the Outdoors for the National Activity Providers
Association and on a personal mission to ensure care home doors are open to the
garden. Debbie continues to run Step Change Design into its 2nd decade sharing
their research through this book a range of workshops, webinars and other
speaking opportunities.
Mark Rendell is a project manager, coach, gardener and garden designer
based in North Wales. He set up 'The Growing Company' in 2000, primarily to
raise awareness of the importance of the outdoors in aiding healing, recovery
and respite in health and care settings. With a background in Health (he worked
in the NHS on HIV/AIDS related issues in the 90s) and in Environmental Projects
(he set up the UK's telephone directory recycling schemes on behalf of BT and
Yellow Pages in 1998), he is also a trainer and project manager specialising in
behaviour change, team dynamics and project management. Mark left Step Change
Design in December 2021 after writing the Designer Handbook with Debbie in
order to pursue his many other projects, consolidate his diverse work
experiences and to (finally) complete the renovation of his 200 year old
property in Snowdonia.
Review :
"Wow!!! I am reading the book WHY DON'T WE GO INTO THE GARDEN by
Debbie Carroll and Mark Rendell and am blown away! It is a GAME CHANGER in how
we view care communities! It is an excellent fit with the Montessori Approach
to care" Carolyn Magnussen, Montessori Care For Elderly, Norway
"....I'm delighted to have been introduced to you both and your amazing [Care Culture] Map! It has made me rethink how we use gardens and I'm using it almost daily." Suzanne Mumford, Head of Nursing, Care UK;
"I was bowled over when I got the Map and Handbook, I will add it to my list of treasures. I took it with me to a [UK Care Home] Activity Forum this week and had 8 of them pouring over the Map as an exercise to see where they thought their care setting was on the journey. It will be a real asset to me as a training tool - Bet you never thought that would happen!" Sylvie Silver MBE, Executive Director now retired), National Activity Providers Association (NAPA);
"I LOVE your books! Arrived last week and I am learning so much- and learning how I, as an eco gerontologist, can apply the knowledge and research your share- so much information. Also, I appreciate the presentation- easy to digest and the Care Culture Map is awesome! Thank You!!!" Monica Eastway, M.S. Eco Gerontologist, USA;
"Debbie, I have enjoyed the book VERY much. I am amazed and deeply impressed by your dedication, and Mark's - I really hope you can make a deep and abiding impression on the care sector. They really need support and new thinking...the worth of your discoveries and insights will be picked up somewhere, including internationally, and will contribute to improved lives and greater Whole Intelligence. Your creativity and professionalism make a brilliant example of what I wrote about long ago now - a great piece of illuminative evaluation! I am newly glad that I included your work in Future Sense, and it often is a story that readers comment on. ...." Malcolm Parlett, Author 'Future Sense', exploring Whole Intelligence and early developer of illuminative evaluation research models
