A new therapy garden has opened at a Suffolk mental health hospital offering a place of peaceful reflection for inpatients and members of the community. GreenMinds, the new mental health therapy garden at Wedgewood House on the West Suffolk Hospital site in Bury St Edmunds, officially opened on June 18 when the team welcomed those who supported the build to a ceremony The garden represents the culmination of a two-year fundraising project led by Katherine Falk and Mossy Kennedy to transform the previously green wasteland into a biodiverse sensory garden for use by patients, staff, carers and vulnerable members of the wider community. The new garden at Wedgewood House (Image: GreenMinds) The launch event began with designer Mia Witham introducing the therapeutic thinking behind her design of the garden.
Dr Sue Stuart-Smith, author of The Well Gardened Mind and Patron of the GreenMinds garden, addressed the guests on the enormous benefits of engaging with nature in improving our mental and physical health. “The GreenMinds garden is part of a growing recognition of the role that horticulture can play in improving health care services in hospitals and schools," she said. "Green care, as it's sometimes called, is about sustainability - in terms of care for the planet and also the kind of psychological sustainability that comes from providing people with what they need in order to flourish.
" Guests at the opening event (Image: GreenMinds) Volunteer co-lead of the GreenMinds proje.
