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LIFE BEYOND THE MILITARY – OUTDOORS
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As the beautiful colours of autumn arrive, we take the opportunity to work closer with the Neuro group.

September 30, 2019

Autumn has most definitely arrived and brought with it a chill in in the air. We are gearing up for harvest time which we plan to celebrate next month. We have had a bumper crop of tomatoes and have now picked the final few, but the chillies keep on coming, bringing lots of colour to the greenhouse. The Stanford Hall shop has very kindly agreed to stock our surplus produce for staff to use for a small donation. Our patients as always are encouraged to use produce for cooking sessions and to take surplus plants to grow on at home.

Ground Cover
The Therapeutic gardens area has provided a useful space for patients undergoing prosthetic rehab to practice mobilising on different surfaces. Areas range from the tiled floor in the greenhouse to the tarmac paths, gravel area adjacent to the greenhouse and grass around the raised beds. Mobilising and maintaining balance on the varied surfaces whilst carrying different horticultural tasks requiring changing positions offers another way of working on these skills. The Village Green gravel area has also proved popular with the some of the physiotherapy staff for additional mobility practice.

Neuro Group
We have started running the small Neuro group weekly with the support of one of the Neuro OT’s to provide the opportunity to work more closely with those patients. The focus this week was to work on object identification and following a process using the task of sowing a Broad Bean seed. Remembering the separate components of the activity and executing each stage correctly and repeatedly helped to practise these skills. Continuing this next week will enable us to assess retention of information and build on the original task.

Therapeutic Horticulture Workshop
I attended a therapeutic horticulture workshop at Waterperry Gardens near Oxford run by Lynne Evans and Caroline Cook from PoP Gardens, both currently practising as Horticultural Therapists. It was a rare opportunity to meet other therapists currently practicing or using Horticulture within their OT role and was so helpful for sharing new ideas.

I will be giving a presentation at the regional RCOT group during October to outline my role as a Horticultural Therapist at DMRC Stanford Hall and spread the word about Horticultural Therapy!!

 

Veg baskets in shop.

Set up a session around a Sunflower.

Village green gravel.

Patient working on prosthetics.

Lynne Evans and Caroline Cooke Therapeutic Horticulture Course Leaders.

Waterperry Gardens.