Ronnie Macmillan, Head Gardener at Castlebrae visited St Andrews yesterday to oversee the start of work on the new Sensory Garden.
More so now than ever, particularly with the increase in violent crime, the life of a police officer is at best stressful and in many cases very dangerous. Although many patients visiting the Treatment Centre come for physiotherapy, there are a number of patients who need support with stress, anxiety and other such conditions. The number of these cases is increasing with at least 20% of patients requiring some support.
The PTC currently offers Patient Advisors at both centres as a confidential listening ear & support, who can also signpost them to additional support services & complementary therapies. The sensory garden will provide great value in helping officers to relax during their stay at St Andrews. It will act as a quiet area for personal contemplation & will be of great benefit to these individuals’ recover.
At Castlebrae, a garden was first created in 2008 by previous head gardener Ian Arnott. It was originally conceived as a ‘Secret garden’, a small separate garden hidden away and offering additional seclusion and peace and quiet, formally named the Catherine Gurney Garden.
Over the years Ronnie had the idea to make it into more of a sensory garden, altering the name slightly to the Catherine Gurney Sensory Garden. He has, and still is, adding old style roses that are very highly scented, touch pots, a camomile seat and last spring a new pergola style entrance to the garden which is planted with dessert apple trees. Ronnie has designed the Sensory garden at St Andrews with similar ideas in mind.
The Sensory Garden is part of a larger project, funded through a grant from LIBOR fines, of which work is continuing around St Andrews -
read all about it here. The government has allocated nearly £10m to help support 200,000 emergency services personnel and volunteers, funded through LIBOR fines. This funding will be focused on mental health, physical recuperation and bereavement support. It is the first time that LIBOR funding has gone to support emergency services personnel. Over £8m of the funding will go to English charities, with the remaining £1.6m made available to the Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland governments.
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