health
Social prescribing Twyford Parish Council supports new local Green Prescriptions initiative Rohana has brought together a volunteer team of fellow Hurst Road allotment holders eager to share the benefits of an active involvement in growing produce. Awareness of the importance of mental health and the increase in wellbeing from engaging with the outdoors was brought into sharp focus for them all during the first lockdown of 2020.
In the past year the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the beneficial effects of being outdoors on both mental and physical health, as well as the inequality of access to green space. Public funds are being allocated to enable more ‘social prescribing’ to be offered through the NHS. One area is ‘green’ social prescribing, which involves health practitioners referring patients locally into an appropriate nature-based activity such as a ‘walking for health’ scheme, community gardening initiative or food-growing project. Twyford Parish Council is supporting a new Green Prescriptions initiative at the Hurst Road allotment site, led by Cllr Rohana Abeywardana. His inspiration came partly from a talk given to the Twyford Allotment Tenants’ Association by gardening writer Annabelle Padwick, founder of the social enterprise Life at No. 27. She spoke about her work creating an allotment therapy site in Towcester and explained the mental health benefits of allotments.
As team member Cllr Teresa Ramsden put it, ‘I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t been able to escape to my plot every day’. Fiona Price, team member and Chief Executive of AgeUK Berkshire, agreed, saying ‘It’s been a real asset’. The response to the project from other plot holders has been overwhelmingly positive, and the team are eager for more local residents, particularly those with defined mental health needs, to benefit from the friendly community atmosphere of the allotment site. Thanks to a grant from Twyford Parish Council, the team began work on the dedicated Green Prescriptions plot in October in preparation to receive their first referrals in the spring. The regular volunteers, Teresa, Cllr Malcom Bray and Natalie Burton, made good progress before the latest lockdown, burning rotten wood, pruning fruit trees, filling rubble bags with broken tools, glass and disintegrating plastic cleared from the overgrown plot, and laying tarpaulin and heavy-duty sheet plastic to suppress weeds. Just before the area was placed under Tier 4 restrictions, they had begun to level the ground to erect a shed and greenhouse and create a sheltered seating area where clients and volunteers can have a cuppa and chat during sessions.
16 rg10 March/Aprl 2021. To advertise please call 0118 907 2510 or email nikki@rg10mag.com
