SOCIAL ASPECTS OF AQUAPONICS
The potential of aquaponics for the wellbeing of elderly citizens
Aquaponics may provide an optimal environment to reach several therapeutic goals in a variety of clients with cognitive and/or physical disabilities, and special population groups like the elderly, children, or developmentally challenged people. The therapeutic goals of health care professionals such as occupational therapists and physiotherapists are the promotion of and/or treatment for wellbeing. The primary goal of occupational therapy is to enable people to participate in the activities of everyday life.
· Aqu@teachAquaponics as an educational tool
Aquaponics promotes scientific literacy and provides a useful tool for teaching the natural sciences at all levels, from primary through to tertiary education. An aquaponics classroom model system provides multiple ways of enriching classes in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). The day-to-day maintenance of an aquaponics system also enables experiential learning, which is the process of learning through physical experience, and more precisely the ‘meaning- making’ process of an individual’s direct experience.
· Aqu@teachAquaponics and wellbeing
Aquaponics offers an innovative form of therapeutic horticulture, a nature-based approach that can promote wellbeing for people with mental health problems through using a range of green activities such as gardening and contact with animals. Over the past decade, a number of social enterprises have emerged that provide therapeutic horticulture programmes for improving the wellbeing of local communities. The social enterprise approach builds on ‘Social Firms’ by facilitating people with mental health problems to develop new skills and re-engage with the workplace.
· Aqu@teachAquaponics and social enterprise
Social enterprises, as distinct from traditional private or corporate enterprise, aim to deliver products and services that cater to basic human needs. For a social enterprise, the primary motivation is not maximising profit but building social capital; economic growth is therefore only part of a much broader mandate that includes social services such as rehabilitation, education and training, as well as environmental protection. There is growing interest in aquaponics among social enterprises, because it represents an effective tool to help them deliver their mandate.
· Aqu@teach