Our short term aim was to establish the pilot project at Auchincruive to find out whether Gardening Leave could play a part in helping to improve the lives of veterans.
Thanks to the Pears Foundation, Professor Atkinson’s research has provided evidence of this. In our first year of operation, 125 veterans received 703 half day sessions of Horticultural Therapy and in our 2nd year of operation, these statistics increased to 342 veterans receiving 1,249 half day sessions so we must be doing something right!
Our long-term Aims are:
- To develop horticultural therapy projects in walled gardens near the Combat Stress treatment centres in Surrey and Shropshire.
- To provide Horticultural Therapy for veterans in walled gardens throughout the country, using the Gardening Leave model which we have created at the pilot project in Ayrshire.
According to the 2nd of our Charitable Objects “To educate the public about the subject of mental health” we aim to spread the word about what Gardening Leave is and what it does. The more people talk about and understand Gardening Leave, the more we can do to reduce the social isolation and adjustment difficulties which so many of our country’s veterans young and old, face today.
