Spring Green Care at MHA
Spring is here - a time to get outside again and focus on the garden and Green Care. If you’re not sure what we mean by Green Care, here’s a definition from our Green Care strategy:
‘Green Care is a programme of person-centred treatments or therapeutic interventions designed for individuals with a defined need and delivered and evaluated by trained/qualified practitioners.’
You can read the full strategy here
So what does that actually mean for MHA? I hear you say. It is widely accepted that time spent outdoors, or finding ways of bringing the outdoors inside, provides us all with a sense of wellbeing.
We’re on a mission as an organisation to improve people’s wellbeing through connecting with nature in whatever way is best for them. This includes our colleagues, residents, members, volunteers and family members. The strategy is based on three key commitments.
Since we’ve launched the strategy, we’ve partnered with Pot Gang. Ten MHA homes are part of the trial with Pot Gang, an organisation set up in lockdown to encourage members of the public to grow their own fruit, veg and herbs. Each month, the homes get sent a new grow kit to plant the seeds, watch them grow and eat the rewards!
We also partnered with charity Thrive who use gardening to bring about positive changes in the lives of people living with disabilities or ill health, or who are isolated, disadvantaged or vulnerable. Five vanguard schemes have been set up and Thrive visited them over the winter. Thrive are going to make recommendations for those individual sites and broader recommendations across the organisation to ensure a successful rollout of Green Care programmes.
It’s also been wonderful to see nature, and bringing nature indoors, being more of a focus for our care homes, retirement living and community groups. From springtime walks to transparent bird feeders at the window, here’s some of our favourite green care pictures.
It’s not just our homes and schemes benefitting. With an Easter theme, our Epworth House chaplain led some green care activities at our head office for colleagues. There’s also green, wellbeing considerations for our new office (date TBC!)