Vocational Rehabilitation of People with Mental Disabilities by Repeated Training of Horticultural Activities

The purpose of this study was to develop an effective horticultural activity program for the vocational rehabilitation of people with mental disabilities. The subjects of this study were seven persons with mental disabilities in the vocational rehabilitation team of a public health center located in G city, Gyeongsangbuk-do. A total of 10 horticultural programs were held from October 10 to December 11, 2018. Five programs were selected among those that were easy for the persons with mental illness to handle and their preference was high. In each session, the same task was repeated 10 times and finally changes in hand functions and working speed were measured. As a result, the assembly task of the Purdue Pegboard test was 23.6 (SD = 10.5) before the program, 26.6 (SD = 11.5) after planting, 27.7 (SD = 12.2) after wrapping pots, and 28.0 (SD = 13.9) after making mini flower baskets, 26.9 (SD = 12.0) after wrapping a single flower, and 29.1 (SD = 11.9) after making corsages. There was a significant difference between the five programs (p = .016). As a result of measuring the time taken to produce the same 10 products, the average planting time was 9.9 (SD = 4.0) minutes in the first class and 6.0 (SD = 2.3) minutes in the second class (p = .018), and making mini flower baskets was reduced from 35.2 (SD = 10.1) minutes to 21.0 (SD = 7.7) minutes (p = .018), wrapping a single flower from 23.3 (SD = 7.9) minutes to 16.2 (SD = 7.3) minutes (p = .043), and making corsages from 53.6 (SD = 15.9) to 40.8 (SD = 16.8) minutes (p = .043). The working time was significantly shortened in the second class compared to the first class. The class for wrapping pots was shortened from 52.7 (SD = 11.7) to 49.6 (SD = 17.8) minutes, but there was no significant difference (p = .398). Key words: dexterity, hand function, working speed