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.
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