Promoting Mental Health and Work Engagement among Japanese Care Workers: Impact of Implementing Green Care Activities and Greening of Rest Areas
発表者／presenter’s name：〇Mizuki UMEHARA 1，Yutaka IWASAKI 1
所属／Affiliation：1 Graduate School of Horticulture, Chiba Univ., Japan

要旨／Abstract

Considering the high levels of stress faced by care workers, we examined the impact of green environments during their work hours, such as gardening and visiting parks during green care activity, and the incorporation of green elements in daycare facilities in improving their well-being and work engagement. This is a novel attempt to explore the impact of engaging with greenery during working hours and breaks on the work engagement and subjective health perception of care workers.

 Through a nationwide online survey of 554 care workers in Japan in March 2023, data were collected on the availability of greenery in workers’ rest areas and whether green care activity was conducted to improve the well-being and physical function of the elderly. Their scores on the Japanese version of the short Utrecht Work Engagement (UWES-J) scale and subjective health scores were obtained.

The findings showed that approximately 56.9% of respondents offered green care activity in their facilities, such as walking programs in green environments. Additionally, 28.1% of respondents had greenery in their rest areas. Furthermore, the correspondence analysis of age and gender results concerning rest areas demonstrated that different user types were associated with the ‘staff break room,’ suggesting that greenery, particularly in this area, and customized rest areas could effectively promote the status of work engagement. 

The average UWES-J score was 2.6 points, SD 1.4. Furthermore, we found that respondents who offered green care activity and whose rest areas had greenery had the highest average UWES-J score of 3.1 points, SD 1.4 (p < 0.01) whereas no significant difference was observed in the subjective health scores.

These findings indicate that implementing green care activity and having green rest areas can potentially enhance the work engagement and mental health of care workers, and subsequently, improve the quality of care for the elderly.

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