HEALTH
Veterans recuperate among the sheds and greenhouses at the Royal Hospital
he has sat next to at breakfast for the past decade started growing sunflowers, he got in on the act, and a race to grow the best one ensued. “Mine got bigger and bigger, his got smaller and smaller,” Lee claims. You won’t find such competition over at the Gardening Leave flowerbeds on the other side of the vast Royal Hospital site. There, the charity runs a gardening club for Chelsea Pensioners who might find the serious stuff at the allotments too much.
But mostly, nurturing PTSD sufferers still living with the horrors of war is the order of the day. A friendly team of horticultural therapists and volunteers help ex-servicemen and women – and even a few who are still serving – to get outside and get back on their feet. Here, you don’t need to be a Chelsea Pensioner, and people visit from all over London.
“It is important for veterans, many of whom live in sheltered accommodation, to get out of their rooms and into a new environment,” explains Joanna Wise, one of the charity’s newest horticultural therapists. “Being in nature is good for your mental wellbeing, and fresh air and sunshine makes you feel better. It’s a restorative process.
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“A lot of horticultural therapy is on the physical side – there’s getting fitter, and learning balance and co-ordination – but there are also a lot of things like developing self-esteem and social inclusion. It provides a really nice excuse for people to get together and talk in a nice, safe environment.”
For some, just making the journey to the Royal Hospital with a “travel buddy” is a massive step in itself. Others have made so much progress that they are using the programme as a springboard to find work, with Gardening Leave able to vouch for their dedication and timekeeping.
For those with physical impairments, one gentle activity that can help is sowing seeds. “People often have difficulty with balance because of brain damage, tinnitus or hearing damage,” says Joanna. “So I often get them to do standing tasks. We’re going to construct a potting bench and put in leaning posts, so they can do tasks that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to.
“It is also good for developing fine motor skills. We might start off with a large, easy-to-handle seed like a broad bean, which is quite nice and easy to handle. Then you can go to a sweet pea seed, and then a tomato seed. It helps
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