Engaging Patients in Healthy Living - Redwood Health Center Garden Program

In 2017, Imagine Perfect Care awarded the Redwood Health Center a grant to build a community garden to improve patient care. With the garden construction completed in early 2018, the garden manager and Redwood stakeholders decided to use the garden to engage patients in better self-care for chronic illnesses, focusing on a clinic-wide goal to improve diabetes control for their patients with an A1C greater than 8%. Project evaluations and a focus group reported the program to be helpful. At least half of the participants took part in all activities involved with the program, with all participants utilizing appointments with specialists. Additionally, most of the participants found the individual gardening and living well classes helpful and all found appointments with specialists helpful.