Conceptual and practical principles in designing healing gardens for veterans with PTSD with a focus on reducing stress- a narrative review

PTSD is one of the consequences of exposure to war. Due to stressful events in war, veterans may face mental health problems which seriously affects the quality of their lives, families and communities. So, consequently reducing stress and improving the health and quality of the life of veterans and the society is very important. The goal of the present research was to investigate the conceptual and practical principles in designing healing gardens for veterans with PTSD by focusing on reducing stress. This research is a narrative review study based on investigating the theoretical foundations, reviewing test results and the case studies which have been conducted throughout the world. Using healing gardens for veterans, has a positive effect on their health by reducing blood pressure, heart rate, stress, depression and so on. The most effective use of healing gardens for veterans is when the design of the garden is based on stress reduction. In this context, the use of the stress-reduction theory Ulrich and Kaplan is extremely efficient.