Healing Garden Opens at Prince William Hospital

Prince William Hospital staff and community leaders will celebrate the opening of a garden Tuesday created to bring peace, serenity and calm to those seeking to heal their minds and bodies.

The Healing Garden is an outdoor therapeutic space, filled with flowers, greenery and a pond of fish for behavioral health and substance abuse patients of Prince William Hospital Center for Psychiatric and Addiction Treatment, Kim Golanski, director of public relations for Prince William Health Center in Manassas, said. 

The garden was created with the help of Manassas Eagle Scout Troop 670 and  includes a colorful mural of a beach scene.

The space was designed based on research that suggests a connection with nature helps patients improve their mental and physical health and helps reduce the need for restraints and seclusion, Golanski said.

The scouts and the hospital are celebrating the garden with a private ribbon cutting ceremony at 5 p.m. Tuesday.

The garden is the outdoor extension of the hospital's Comfort Room, which opened last January.

Staff members utilize multi-sensory and relaxation interventions in the Comfort Room to promote a calming environment by use of the beach scene mural, a glider chair, bean bag chairs, nature sounds and music, squeeze and stress balls and an aromatherapy fan, she said.

The Prince William Health Center is one of 13 hospitals and a medical group owned by Novant Health Inc.