Volunteers have created a garden for NHS mental health patients and staff in Kent to enjoy.<\/p>\n
Oakwood Nature Recovery Garden in Maidstone has been officially inaugurated with a tree-planting ceremony.<\/p>\n
It took nine weeks for the team of volunteer gardeners to transform a neglected area into “a beautiful sensory garden” that “supports patients in their recovery journeys”, the team said.<\/p>\n
Sheila Stenson, Kent & Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust chief executive, said the garden was “a remarkable sensory experience”.<\/p>\n
She added: “This official opening not only celebrates our sensory garden, but also showcases the extraordinary spirit of our community and the commitment of our volunteers.”<\/p>\n
The trust collaborated with Kent Wildlife Trust to conduct thorough wildlife surveys, revealing the area’s ecological diversity.<\/p>\n
The garden is a “mosaic of textures, vibrant colours, soothing sounds, and serene wellness spaces, all designed to promote healing and recovery”, according to the trust.<\/p>\n
Students from Mid Kent College also joined the volunteering team with the project.<\/p>\n
Kirsty McInnes, charity and volunteers manager, said: “The feedback we’ve received has been overwhelmingly positive.<\/p>\n
“Many patients and their loved ones find this space calming and enjoyable.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Volunteers have created a garden for NHS mental health patients and staff in Kent to enjoy. Oakwood Nature…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4317],"tags":[105,218,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-177146","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114667813805601299","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}