Green Care as Psychosocial Intervention for Depressive Symptoms: What Might Be the Key Ingredients?

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Green care is an umbrella term for psychosocial interventions that integrate biotic and abiotic elements of nature to promote an individual’s health and well-being. Green care decreases depressive symptoms but the parts of the interventions that lead to this effect are unknown. OBJECTIVES: Review of literature to evaluate perceived social support, behavioral activation, and self-efficacy as key ingredients to decrease depressive symptoms in psychosocial interventions and extrapolate those mediators, or key ingredients, to green care. DESIGN: A literature search of three databases was conducted to find relevant studies examining a psychosocial intervention for adults, the mediator of interest, and depressive symptoms. RESULTS: Evidence supports behavioral activation, social support, and self-efficacy as mediators of psychosocial interventions to improve depressive symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Green care offers a portal for individuals with different depressive symptoms and severities to be treated alongside each other while receiving targeted interventions to meet the needs of each individual participant. Additionally, it offers the opportunity for psychiatric nurses to concurrently target all three active key ingredients.