Greencare
Funded by Ecominds (a Big Lottery and Mind project) our greencare project will be safe, creative and fun haven
where people can reconnect with nature and to each other.
It will:
- Provide a vastly improved environment to work with people with personality disorders
- Provide a service currently unmet or only partially met in the region
- Build on the good practice of the Thames Valley Initiative (TVi)
- Provide a more cost effective treatment for many people
- Comply with many of the new policy drivers on health & wellbeing, extending choice, the third sector and joint working
What is ‘greencare'?
It is contact with nature to improve health and well-bring. Plants, animals, forests, farms, wilderness: anything that is not man-made. In this project we are including nature as an ‘extra' in various other therapy programmes. But eventually, we hope to show that it works best as an integrated part of mainstream therapies as a holistic solution for a wide range of mental disorders. As well as a ‘technique', it is also a philosophy that sees much of modernised healthcare as losing touch with things that matter to people: feelings of belonging, emotional safety, ‘ordinary' day-to-day ways of coping, and the importance of relationships.About the project
Who is it for?
It is for everybody who lives in Slough:
1. For service users - to help in their recovery and well-being
2. For volunteers - often as a stepping-stone towards work
3. For staff - to feel they are doing something worthwhile
4. For the other services - to provide something extra that's valuable
5. For everybody - to come along from time to time and enjoy seeing what we are doing
The people we want to welcome into the project all share the fact that they have been unable to enjoy life as usual because of ‘longstanding emotional problems'. In particular, we would hope to include the following groups:
• Addictions
• Family and friends
• Seeking or leaving NHS therapy
• Young jobseekers
• Troublemakers • Multiple disabilities
• Elderly & lonely
• Homeless
• Disillusioned youth
• Non-english speakers
What happens each day?
First, we want everybody to feel accepted and safe here. So each session (morning or afternoon) will start with a ‘check-in' where everybody says a little about how they are - and then the tasks of the day are arranged. Similarly, before everybody goes home, the group holds a ‘check-out' where everybody checks if they need anything else before they leave. What happens between will depend on the season, the weather, what we need to do - and many other things!
Can I refer somebody or refer myself?
Yes. Though we prefer people to refer themselves, so they understand what they are letting themselves in for.
You can either join as a service user (which, after the EcoMinds funding finishes, means you will have to agree for some agency to pay for you to come) or as a volunteer (which means you need to be able to get yourself here, and be able to help organise the activities)
How will you know if it is working?
We need to send regular reports back to EcoMinds, so they can be sure that we are using their money well. But are also closely linked to other research projects (for example, in the NHS and with universities), so we will be using that knowledge to make sure we collect useful evidence to validate what we do here.
How can I get involved?
If you want to get involved, or simply find out more information, please get in touch by using the deatils on the 'contact us' page
You can also download our Launch Party booklet, which contains more information about the project
For more information about Care Farming in the UK click here
For more information about Ecotherapy click here
You can read more about the progress of the Greencare project by visiting Rex's blog
