Green Social Prescribing | Mental Health

Through the Green Social Prescribing project based at Crumpsall Park we were working with one of the in-patient wards from North Manchester General Hospital. Over the 6 sessions, 6 of their male patients attended our weekly sessions.

The Ward cares for Adults who have a wide range of Mental Health needs, which includes those that have been detained under the Mental Health Act and other voluntary “informal” patients. The ward has a strong emphasis on holistic, individualised care for their service users.

Each session centred around growing, nature crafts or outdoor activities. Participants took part in activities which encouraged them to continue their connection with nature at home; creating bird boxes they could take home and watch the birds, planting in the allotment but also taking seeds home to watch grow. Each session included time to relax and connect with nature, as well as learning a new skill or undertaking an activity.

Participants enjoyed the sessions and felt they improved their mental health; one person was suffering with anxiety and depression and found the sessions really good as they had structure to their week and could look forward to getting out and about. Another member was struggling to manage commitments at home along with her own mental health, so found the sessions to be some respite from the outside world.

Gemma Harris, a Community Project Lead at Groundwork who led some of the sessions, shared her thoughts with us:

“It’s been a really lovely 6 weeks. I can really see a difference in some participants, they always come full of smiles and they’ve been really excited to get started”

During these sessions, occupational therapists attended alongside the participants to ensure that they felt safe and happy with the activities. Daniel Lizar, shared his thoughts after the final session:

“I think you can see the therapeutic benefits quite well in terms of giving people distracting activities to do. Being out in nature and gardening, you can see the progress of things growing, which has psychological as well as physical benefits.”

Hear more about the Crumpsall project in the video: