As time passes, we grow and strengthen. That lesson is showcased, both literal and metaphorical, by the neurological patients at Emerge Nursing and Rehabilitation in Glen Cove.
Through this past summer, four seniors grew their own herbs and vegetables as they recovered from brain injuries.
“Brain injury is very isolating,” said Ricardo Vultaggio, the neurological rehabilitation program coordinator at Emerge.
Patients who participate in the gardening therapy program recieve a sense of community and direction, Vultaggio said.
“With cognitive impairment, it’s very isolating, he said. “And it’s like a loop. When you have cognitive impairments where it’s difficult for you to participate in community actively, it makes the cognitive impairment worse.”
Emerge has 25 beds for patients, Vultaggio said. This summer, four of the nursing home’s patients qualified for the gardening program.
Throughout the summer, four patients participated in watering, planting and maintaining a small garden in Emerge’s outdoor space. Not only did this provide a community for the patients involved, but it also helped the seniors develop a stronger sense of time, Vultaggio said.
“You create a routine,” he said. “Routine is extremely healthy for cognitive impairment patients.”
“This gives them a tangible sense of orientation to time and place,” he said.
With tasks at hand, like watering or weeding, patients associate different actions with different days of the week, Vultaggio said.
“It has meaning,” he said. “Just telling someone what day it is, [while] that’s nice, what meaning does it have behind that?”
Vultaggio said the plants used in this program are all fast-growing, so patients can see progress over the summer. Seeing progress quickly is motivating to participants, he said.
“I want them to have their own impact,” he said. “I want them to have cognitive closure.”
More than providing community and temporal benefits, the program is designed to be calming, Vultaggio said. There are neurological benefits to creating a relaxing environment, he said.
“When you reduce the stress, it lowers the inflammation on the brain,” Vultaggio said. “When that kind of stress reduction’s happening, it boosts the growth of neurotropic factors.”
“We try to keep it nice and relaxed,” he said.
Emerge creates a calming environment by providing refreshments and catering to the needs of the individual, Vultaggio said.
Moving into the fall and winter seasons, Vultaggio said that he hopes to create an indoor gardening space.
“When the wintertime comes, the recreation team tries to have a lot more activities since there’s not an outdoor space that people can participate in that they usually have,” he said.
In the colder weather, the recreational team hosts various events to promote community with the patients, Vultaggio said. This includes painting classes, karaoke nights and bingo events.
“People are really engaged,” Vultaggio said.
Vultaggio began working at Emerge in 2018, when the neurological rehabilitation program had just started. In the eight years he has been at Emerge, he said that the program has grown far beyond where it started.
Vultaggio said he looks forward to additional programming this fall.
“It’s been an amazing experience to not only watch it expand and grow, but be completely involved in that expansion and growth.”
