SENSE-GARDEN is a therapeutic space addressing care and well-being of people, with focus on mental health. Current users are persons with major neurocognitive disorders and their caregivers. The space is open to other conditions, situations, and accommodating all ages. In the SENSE-GARDEN space there are photos, videos, music and scents connected with the person's life story that strengthen the awareness by providing stimuli to the different senses, such as sight, touch, hearing, balance and smell. There are SENSE-GARDENs in Belgium, Norway, Portuga, Romania and the Netherlands.
In the SENSE-GARDENs photos and videos are combined with music - maybe images of mountains shown together with the sounds of singing birds. Favourite smells - for example the odour of a pine forest - are dispersed with a scent delivery system. Objects for enhancing touch experience and proprioception are combined stimuli to the other senses to improve both physical and cognitive function. This provides an immersive space that adjusts to each visitor, creating a connection to the most preserved areas of the emotional memory.
The SENSE-GARDEN activates people both mentally and physically. They can for example cycle or walk in a well-known space feeling as going home. These amazing experiences have already shown several positive effects on SENSE-GARDEN visitors, invigorating their identity, helping recovering their identity and re-connecting them to the persons they love and to the world around them.
