Caroline Cook, a freelance Horticultural Therapist based in Sheffield and Derbyshire.
Since writing for Growth Point in Winter 2015 (can it really be four years ago?), I am encouraged how gardening and Social and Therapeutic Horticulture is starting to be recognised as being significant in improving health and wellbeing here in the UK.
It’s also exciting, since the Channel 4 documentary Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds, that there’s interest in encouraging relationships between nurseries and care homes, even joint sites being developed for children and older residents.
With a background as a speech and language therapist, returning from Asia doing community development work and suffering from burnout, I got into gardening for my own wellbeing.
I then retrained and became passionate about seeing the quality of older people’s lives in care homes transformed by having access to nature and plants. It has not been an easy journey working freelance as many care homes are interested but do not have the funding to pay.
It has involved a lot of cold calling, emailing, having meetings, networking and trying to get into care homes to do an initial taster session… but the satisfaction when they book you for a year!
Currently I have contact with about 15 care homes and provide Social and Therapeutic Horticulture either on a fortnightly or monthly basis with several just doing a few sessions a year due to funding.
I work closely with activity coordinators and a few volunteers and we try to involve relatives and visitors as much as possible. The charity First Taste (recently amalgamated with Age UK Derby and Derbyshire) have provided me with a lot of support and inspiration especially with their intergenerational projects where I have worked as their horticultural tutor on a sessional basis in care homes and day centres for the past eight years.
A typical day (if there is one!)
I especially enjoy Wednesday, when I do an intergenerational project with pupils from Dronfield Junior School in Derbyshire, which my children went to, and Brookview Care Home, in Dronfield. A different group of eight children (aged seven and eight) come fortnightly each term for an hour.
Last summer we arranged a special session when three of the residents from the care home came by wheelchair taxi to the junior school for a gardening session.
Everyone enjoyed sitting out in the sunshine and making a scarecrow together for the school vegetable garden. A lot of fun was had designing the scarecrow with clothes, handbag, shoes that the children had brought in from home. (Hopefully no longer wanted by their parents!)
8.30am: My daughter has left for school, washing is hanging out to dry. Check my emails and phone for messages. May go for a quick walk round our local golf course before I start the day.
9am: Write up my lesson plan for the session. Today we are going to do a flower arrangement in a pumpkin. Prepare a handout on autumn with questions for the children to ask the residents. Prepare the flowers that are already soaking in a bucket that I bought yesterday from Aldi. Prepare the pumpkins with the soaked oasis and load everything in to the car. It is great doing the session in my local town as it only takes me five minutes to get there.
10.30am: Arrive at care home, chat with Joanne the activity coordinator and we set up for the session. Pop into the garden and cut some foliage for the flower arranging.
10.45am: The residents are all sitting expectantly around two large tables with spaces in between them for the children. They ask eagerly if the children are coming today and a few minutes later the children arrive with bright smiling faces and sparkling eyes. "Ooh are we doing pumpkins today?"
The teaching assistant and volunteer grandparent from the school bring the children by car, especially planned so they don’t miss their maths or English lessons.
Our initial session involved a short time with the children encouraging them to think of difficulties older people may have with their hearing, eyesight and memory and how we can best help them. It is amazing the understanding they have with several of them having a grandparent with dementia.
The children chat with the residents about autumn and harvest, asking questions and getting to know them. We pass round the foliage and flowers and everyone enjoys smelling and feeling them and talking about flowers they used to grow in their gardens.
After a simple demonstration of arranging the foliage and seasonal orange and yellow and rust flowers in the pumpkin (I tend to use chrysanthemums and carnations as they last well) we work in three groups with the activity coordinator, teaching assistant and volunteer assisting.
The children and residents work together positioning the flowers and enjoying being creative together. As they admire their work we all sit and have a cup of tea, glass of squash and a biscuit.
It’s lovely to see the relationships developing between the residents and the children.
Amelia, who is seven, said: "I enjoy being with the old people and having fun and enjoying myself."
Jean, who is in her 80s, said: "The children keep us happy. They make us laugh. They are fun!"
Heidi, who is eight, loved coming in to see Ken and brought her sister and her mum to join our session during one half term. Another time they even walked half a mile through the snow to join us when the school was closed as she still wanted to come! Heidi and her family pop in to see Ken on a regular basis now even when it is not gardening group and sent him a postcard from their holiday in the summer. It is so special seeing these community links developing.
11.45am: Time for the children to go back to school. "Oh no do we have to go? Can we come again tomorrow!"
The children take one of the flower arrangements back to school with them. After clearing up and on my way out I bump in to the manager – she is really pleased with how the project is going: "There is such a buzz when the children are here. The place comes alive with chatting and laughing and life. The residents really look forward to the children coming."
We discuss arranging another celebration event for summer 2019 as we did in June 2018. We invited all the children who had attended the project over the year with their parents for afternoon tea in the garden. The mayor and team from Dronfield in Bloom attended and presented certificates to all the children and we had an article in the local magazine and newspaper.
12.15pm: On my way home, I pop in to the local garden centre and buy some winter bedding plants as the session I am doing tomorrow is planting up some hanging baskets at a care home in Sheffield. Get home and unload the car and have some lunch.
2pm: With a cup of coffee, I settle down to do my admin, write up my notes and do some invoicing.
I try to keep focused and avoid being distracted by household chores! Just time to start to write up an evaluation of some staff training I have done. It was great to have the opportunity to train-up staff and activity coordinators over six months across seven care homes in a network in South Derbyshire.
I was a bit daunted about doing this but really enjoyed it! It was great to meet regularly with a group of activity coordinators and to inspire others to get care home residents actively involved in gardening and interacting with nature.
4pm: My daughter arrives home tired after a steep walk up the hill from school. As I did a session in the morning today, I am home when she comes in so we sit down have a cup of tea and chat about her day. I do enjoy being freelance and flexible.
What next?
I am really looking forward to working on a new intergenerational project with First Taste in Matlock. From January till July, infant children aged five will be visiting a care home on a weekly basis to do gardening and nature activities with the residents. Hopefully we will get funding to continue this project on an ongoing basis.
Another care home network I go into is interested in setting up training sessions for activity coordinators across Sheffield, so I’m hoping to inspire more care homes and activity coordinators to engage their residents with the outside and nature.
I would love to hear from anyone who is involved in working in care homes, with people with dementia, intergenerational work or training care home staff/activity coordinators.
Contact Caroline via
info@gardeningwithcaroline.co.uk
www.gardeningwithcaroline.co.uk
