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Debbie Carroll
ALLi Author Member
Location: United Kingdom (the)
Genres: Mental Health, General Nonfiction, Academic, Other, Advice & How To, Business, Nature/Science
Skills: Speaking Engagement/Lecture, Press/Media Interview
Debbie Carroll is a garden designer with 20 years experience and a passion for ensuring gardens are well used and well loved, whether they are part of a domestic setting or a care environment. She has a particular expertise in developing gardens within care homes and other health settings, including for residents living with dementia. It was this work that raised the question of why aren’t care home gardens more actively used, even when designed to the latest guidance, after realising how many gardens fell out of use, often at considerable cost, once the initial novelty had worn off.
This question led to a major self-funded research project with fellow designer Mark Rendell to understand what was at the heart of this. Their journey took them deep inside the care organisations, often far from the garden, and revealed the key role of organisational culture. Step Change Design Ltd was formed to share their research findings and together they self-published their books and tools in the series entitled ‘Why don’t we go into the garden?’ They advocate for a new way of delivering design support they call ‘Relationship-Centred Design’ to take account of the organisation's culture and if necessary to allow for a culture change journey before or alongside any new garden development.
These books support both the Care and Landscape Design sectors in creating actively used gardens long after the designer has left and that ensure residents can continue to enjoy being in the garden as and when they wish, gaining the proven health benefits to be had there. Debbie actively shares their work and findings through workshops and a wide range of speaking events within both sectors.
Debbie Carroll's books
🔍 Why don’t we go into the garden? – A Designer Handbook for Creating Actively Used Care Setting Gardens
This care home garden design handbook supports garden designers, and those who support care settings, to create well-used and well-loved care home garden designs. Based on our extensive research project into what makes care home gardens more actively used. In it we share a new way of working with care settings called ‘Relationship-Centred Design’. This approach ensures that design support matches the current care culture of the setting to reduce the risk of the design investment leading to an under-used or abandoned garden once the novelty of a new space has worn off.
Real-life stories illuminate this thought provoking book and brings to life how to ensure gardens are meaningfully developed and used, and with particular reference to people living with dementia.
It is also worth stating what this Handbook is not; it is not a guide to what the gradient of a ramp should be nor other installation specifics; many other books cover these topics effectively.
It does however provide a detailed ‘Care Culture Banding tool’ to assess the care culture at a setting and the suggested support to apply to match this appropriately. This is most helpful at the beginning of any relationship between garden designers and care home clients, ensuring an appropriate initial brief and the implementation of support delivered alongside any changes needed to care practices too.
A range of wider insights are also explored that may need to be considered if even the best intended garden is to avoid inadvertently hindering future engagement by care settings. This includes; a range of hidden dangers, avoiding gimmicks and some quick wins.
ISBN No. 9780993573712
Wire bound/ Number of pages: 76
Dimensions: 254 x 178 x 12 mm Weight: 295 g
Why don’t we go into the garden? – Care Culture Map and Handbook
The Care Culture Map and Handbook shares the key findings from our evidence based research into what makes care home gardens more actively used. This package supports care homes, and the outdoor specialists who support them, to identify and address the factors that prevent resident’s regularly and meaningfully engaging with the care home gardens.
The visually engaging Care Culture Map makes the often complex process of culture change visually accessible and understandable by all staff within care settings allowing progress to be clearly seen, understood and readily communicated. This diagnostic tool enables care settings to locate where they are along a care culture spectrum in relation to Person-Centred and Relationship-Centred Care. It is deliberately paper based to encourage group discussion as to what is holding back greater use of the existing gardens and to agree a route forward.
The accompanying handbook explores several common themes to overcome, including: Health and Safety, Open door policies, and being weather ready. Where the support of a garden designer is required to make physical changes this helps care homes and garden designers to work effectively together to ensure the garden is actively used beyond any initial novelty period of a new space. We call this approach ‘Relationship-centred Design’.
Working with the Map tool will often identify practices that are mirrored inside the care home too and so the Map tool can sit comfortably alongside other culture change programmes to achieving more advanced care practices.
A copy of our A3 Infographic Poster, “Why Don’t We Go Into The Garden?” is included in this package.
ISBN No. 9780993573705
Number of pages: 48 handbook, folded Map style diagnostic tool, A3 infographic, folded to A4
Dimensions: 255 x 180 mm, wire bound handbook, Map tool A0+ folded to Map format
This package is currently issued in a biodegradable celephase sleave. A solid box file format is currently being created to stand on book shelves and aid the use of this tool longer term for purchasers.