Charity Focus – Gardening Leave
Share by EmailGardening Leave is a charity started by Anna Baker Cresswell in 2007 which uses Horticultural Therapy in walled gardens to improve the mental and physical wellbeing of serving and ex-Service personnel.
Many servicemen find the transition to civilian life difficult and social isolation, relationship difficulties and feeling they ‘don’t belong’ are common. Gardening Leave provides a safe, peaceful environment, exclusively for military personnel where they can be with like-minded people, under the watchful eye of our Horticultural Therapist who is supported by carefully selected volunteers.
Gardening Leave provides a purely therapeutic service and we are not output-driven or commercial in any way. Everyone who attends Gardening Leave needs to either self-refer via our Head Office in Ayrshire (01292 521 444) or be referred via their GP, another Service charity or a DCMH. We have a team of Assessors who are all CPN’s with military experience who will come and visit each referral and explain what Gardening Leave is about and assess risk to self and others prior to attendance at Gardening Leave.
If you enjoy being outside, with like-minded people in a therapeutic environment, you could give Gardening Leave a try.
There are only 3 projects at the moment, 2 in Scotland and one at the Royal Hospital, home of the Chelsea Pensioners but there are more opening all over the UK using the model Gardening Leave developed at the pilot project in Ayrshire so keep watching the website www.gardeningleave.org for more details.
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This is a brilliant project, hats off to all