A step in the right direction is how one former psychiatric patient described the newly opened rooftop garden at The Moncton Hospital.
Alicia Robichaud says during her stay she was lucky to have her parents nearby who could take her to the park or their backyard, but other patients were not so fortunate.
“A lot of them were here for 30 days and didn’t see their families once because either the families didn’t have a car, or they were kind of not able to go outside,” says Robichaud. “So they were here for 30 days [with] not many outdoor activities.”
Robichaud says while it’s a very exciting day, it’s also a little sad because it should have been in place long ago.
Another former patient Alicia Robichaud says this unit saved her life and this garden and staff will help others in the future #Moncton pic.twitter.com/lI1EEpeS8J
— 91.9The Bend News (@919TheBendNews) August 14, 2017
Susan Duquette believes having meetings outdoors will create better relationships between staff and patients.
“It’ll cut down on the stress of just being in a closed in office, some of the rooms in that unit are very dark, so to be out in the sunshine it’s going to be so healing for everybody,” says Duquette.
While a patient there, she took steps to get sunlight herself.
“I looked on the floor, there’s a common area, and there were some windows that the sun would shine in, so I would actually spend two or three hours just sitting in front of the windows trying to get sunshine,” says Duquette.
She also brought her own sun lamp to use in her room, and would spend time imagining being outside in a garden.
Some of the flower elements at the new rooftop garden at The #Moncton Hospital
Aug 14, 2017 at 8:23am PDT
