Gardening Leave

Gardening Leave was a British registered horticultural therapy charity[3][4][1][2] that focused on the mental health of British Armed Forces veterans.[5] It supported veterans with a wide range of mental health conditions including depression, anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Through horticultural therapy sessions, the charity aimed to maximise a veteran's physical, psychological and social strength, and enhance general health and well-being.

This article is about the horticultural charity. For the employment practice, see Garden leave.

Gardening Leave
Founded2007 (2007)
Defunct2015 (2015)
TypeCharitable organisation
Registration no.England and Wales: 1119786 (as Gardening Leave Limited)[1]
Scotland: SC038563 (as Gardening Leave Limited)[2]
FocusTo provide horticultural therapy for men and women (serving or formerly serving in the British Armed Forces) who are suffering mental health problems.
Area served
United Kingdom
Revenue
£327,452 (2013)[1]
Employees
15 (2013)[1]

Gardening Leave was founded in March 2007 and opened its headquarters and first project at Auchincruive, Scotland. On 3 September 2007, Lance Corporal Johnson Beharry opened the Poppy Collection at the Ayr site. The organisation also ran projects at Glasgow's Erskine Hospital and London's Royal Hospital Chelsea, and an outreach project in East Acton. It announced plans to open a new project in Dundee in 2015.

The charity closed at the end of 2015 following shortfalls in income.[6]

Horticultural therapy
See also: Horticultural therapy

"Horticultural therapy is a professionally conducted client-centred treatment modality that utilises horticultural activities to meet specific therapeutic or rehabilitative goals of its participants. The focus is to maximise social, cognitive, physical and/or psychological functioning and/or to enhance general health and wellbeing."[7]

Present work

In 2014 Gardening Leave launched an Honesty campaign,[8] using the honesty plant seed head as its emblem, to raise awareness of stigma surrounding veterans' mental health.

As of October 2014, the chairman of Gardening Leave is Luke Borwick and the chief executive officer is Heather Budge-Reid.[9]

References
  1. Charity Commission
  2. Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator
  3. Tidball, Keith G.; Krasny, Marianne E (22 July 2013). Greening in the Red Zone: Disaster, Resilience and Community Greening. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 171–. ISBN 9789048199471. Retrieved 15 November 2014.
  4. Marcus, Clare Cooper; Sachs, Naomi A (20 September 2013). Therapeutic Landscapes: An Evidence-Based Approach to Designing Healing Gardens and Restorative Outdoor Spaces. Wiley. pp. 434–. ISBN 9781118421109. Retrieved 15 November 2014.
  5. Gardening Leave
  6. Kay, Liam (4 December 2015). "Armed forces charity Gardening Leave to close with 13 jobs lost". ThirdSector. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
  7. Haller, Rebecca; Kramer, Cramer, eds. (8 November 2006). Horticultural therapy methods: Making connections in health care, human service, and community programs. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781560223269. Retrieved 15 November 2014.
  8. "Honesty pledge". Gardening Leave. Archived from the original on 18 November 2014. Retrieved 25 October 2014.
  9. "Who we are". Gardening Leave. Archived from the original on 16 November 2014. Retrieved 25 October 2014.


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