Usefulness of Ikebana a Nursing Care Environment

Japanese society is aging rapidly and currently one in four people of the population are the elderly. Due to the increasing number of the elderly who need nursing care, improvement of their QOL is required. As a recreation activity of the nursing care for the elderly, I implemented Ikebana, an aspect of Japanese traditional culture of life. There was no change in the test subject’s NPI score, but in the GBS scale, which measures an immediate change, improvement in emotional state of the subject was found. Compared to popular recreation activities such as karaoke or viewing of DVD video, the subject’s mental state was maintained in good condition for a long period of time even after making ikebana. The result suggested that ikebana has a healing effect, especially for reducing the anxiety or for recovering calmness. Enjoying a sense of season through flower materials, use of five senses by touching or seeing, thinking for oneself, hand working with tools such as scissors and having a dialogue with people are possible contributing factors. It is likely that ikebana gives the elderly mental stability and that it is useful for keeping them stay in good mental health, making a great contribution for the QOL in aging society in the future.