Gardening eased lockdown loneliness as pandemic paralyzed Britain
“I’m hoping this study will show the power of therapeutic community gardening and inspire more research into its benefits.”
Eureka Alert
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Nov 3, 2022
Excerpt:
Therapeutic community gardening helped reduce loneliness as the pandemic paralysed the nation, University of Essex research has revealed.
A study that unfolded across three years of the COVID-19 crisis found that horticulture schemes helped to maintain mental health despite national well-being plummeting.
The study followed people with mental health issues as they worked on therapeutic community gardens run by the charity Trust Links from 2019 to 2022.
As they sowed, planted and tended to vegetables and flowers their self-reported life satisfaction and mental well-being increased by 9%.
Incredibly the study used data collected before the coronavirus forced the world into unprecedented lockdowns and captured the benefits that nature-based therapeutic interventions can have in a time of crisis.
Dr Carly Wood is now calling for more investment and research into therapeutic gardening which could take the pressure off the NHS.
Dr Wood, from the School of Sport, Rehabilitation, and Exercise Sciences, said: “There is growing evidence to support the use of nature-based interventions for the treatment of mental ill-health and great potential to upscale the use of therapeutic community gardening through the Government and NHS’ Green Social Prescribing agenda.
“The pandemic drew this clearly into focus and showed that even as we coped with unprecedented disruption and upheaval community gardening has the power to help some of society’s most vulnerable people.
