A Study to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Gardening Therapy on Depression Among Elderly in Selected Old Age home at Kanyakumari District.

Back ground of the study :Emotional bonding is one of the powerful tools against depression . Gardening binds people together and increase happiness and initamcy It leads to depression and stress among elderly. to facilitate better physical and mental health emotional bonding is necessary . This provides a sense of emotional security which resists stress and depression the number one sickness in elderly. the aim of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of gardening therapy on depression among elderly in selected old age home at Kanyakumari district. Material and Methods: The design adopted was quasi experimental pre test and post test control design the purposive sampling technique was used to select the sample the tool used for data collection procedures was modified J A YESAVAGE geriatric depression scale . Gardening therapy was practiced for 45 minutes everyday. Results: The study findings predicts that most of the elderly 53.33% had moderate depression and in control group 43.33% had severe depression .Gardening therapy was surprising that 53.33% of mild depression in experimental group and 53.33% had moderate depression in control group there was a significant reduction in mean post test depression level ( MD= 8.33, t=32.09p,<.001) in the experimental group . The mean post test level of depression score in the experimental group 12.96 was lesser than data control group 20.36 (MD =7.4, t=6.55, p<. oo1)conclusion : gardening therapy has found to be an effective non-pharmacological treatment for depression among elderly.