Christmas appeal to help therapy garden fund
Patients and staff at West Suffolk’s main mental health facility in Bury St Edmunds are hoping for a boost to their funding appeal this Christmas.
A small team has already raised more than half of the £90,000 needed to turn a piece of wasteland at the adult acute unit, Wedgwood House, into a therapy garden to be used by patients, staff, and other vulnerable user groups. Non-patients living in the community who are struggling with their mental health will also have access to the garden and the planned outreach programme of therapeutic and educational garden activities which will be held there once completed.
The healing power of nature, and gardening in particular, is widely recognised as complementing medical and other clinical treatments and interventions which hospital patients receive - whatever their physical or mental illness or injury.
The site has been carefully pruned to allow in more natural light and the Trust’s estates have moved existing wild primroses to protect them in preparation for the garden to be built next spring.
Landscape designer Mia Witham, who specialises in designing outdoor therapeutic spaces to improve mental health, has created a plan which includes interactive areas and quiet, safe spaces for reflection. The garden will include areas for cultivating and growing where regular workshops will be held, a yoga and meditation meadow with a backdrop of natural boulders and a platform overlooking the garden to use as a meeting area for therapy groups, family gatherings or just for peaceful contemplation.
Katherine Falk, the project’s co-lead, said: “The need for a healing garden at Wedgwood House has never been greater. The inpatients and outpatients, who range in age from late teens to later life, come from all corners of society with many of them never having benefited from having a garden of their own.”
She added that the project was a truly collaborative effort: “From the start, our patients and staff have been involved with developing the design ideas with the team, offering valuable insight into what they most want to benefit from in a therapy garden.
“Our goal for this garden is to enable change and transform the lives and future opportunities of all Wedgwood House patients and other vulnerable user groups: to fulfil their potential by empowering them with new skills, increased confidence, greater resilience, an appreciation for the natural living world and a chance to play a meaningful role in their communities.”
The project team also includes volunteer co-lead Mossy Kennedy and project partner Greener Growth, a Community Interest Company based in Suffolk which provides educational and therapeutic horticultural activities in schools, prisons and other community settings. Bures-based Stewart Landscape Construction also joined the team this summer having won the tender process to build the new garden.
Fundraising began in earnest last year when the father of a previous patient generously raised £700; and 2022 kicked off with Mossy crowdfunding £6,000 to pay for design and development work. Shortly afterwards Katherine clocked up a marathon worth of fundraising miles throughout February with patients, running at least a mile a day. Funding has also come from local government, Suffolk Community Foundation, the business sector, individual benefactors and a number of grant funders whose focus is on supporting public health, mental wellbeing and environmental projects.
If you would like to support the garden project and help the team reach their fundraising target by next spring, please visit Wedgwood House Therapy Garden or search Wedgwood House Therapy Garden on justgiving.com.