News Update

News Update

New Rehabilitation Garden

Creating a garden for patients and their visitors

We are now working on our next capital project: to create a sensory garden for patients in three of our rehab wards.  The garden will be created just outside our new Jubilee Building by celebrity gardener to the Royals and eight times Chelsea Flower Show gold medal winner, Tom Stuart-Smith.

The Multidisciplinary team on the Alderbourne Rehabilitation Unit (ARU), Daniels
Rehabilitation Unit (DRU) and The Stroke Unit (TSU) have provided neurological
rehabilitation to patients that present with a wide range of neurological conditions for the past 3 decades. The multidisciplinary teams providing these specialist service consist of doctors, specialist occupational therapists, physiotherapists, speech therapists, dieticians, rehabilitation nursing staff and neuropsychologists.

Watch our video to meet members of the team and hear from them why the garden is so important.

The main focus of the MDT is to rehabilitate patients to optimise independence and
promote opportunities for functional and cognitive recovery. Some patients also
benefit from case management and specialist advice regarding their longer term
needs prior to being discharged into a supported living environment.
Due to the nature of neurological injuries, patients needing inpatient rehabilitation on  require a longer hospital length stay (often for weeks or months).

Environment is an important factor in recovery, both physically and mentally, during the patient's rehabilitation journey. The MDT encourage the use of day rooms and gym however there is no access to an open space.. A garden would create an outdoor, therapeutic environment whilst also providing a space for enrichment activities and essential time with family and visitors

Munawar's story

Munwar is a family man who says his best achievements in life are his 3 children. He was a very active dad when his twins were born 22 years ago.
His career as a buyer for an electronic company took him all over the world – Japan, Malaysia, India, Pakistan and more.

 

In June he was at his sister’s house when his legs started to feel wobbly. He put it
down to tiredness and thought he would be fine after a good nights sleep.
The next morning he couldn’t walk at all. His right arm wouldn’t work either. He
had had a stroke without realising it. He didn’t experience any pain. He says
anyone who experiences any kind of numbness should get it checked out quickly as he may have had a better outcome if he had been seen by clinicians when it first
happened.

He has been in Daniel’s ward since it happened. He feels that the ward has given
him excellent rehabilitation and he can now move his right hand and arm, and is
walking with aids. He says of his long-term stay would appreciate being able to go out in the fresh air. He would very much like to go out and spend more time in surroundings that would enable him to comfortably sit outside with his visitors and maybe so some activities out there.
He said the following would be good:
❑ Wheelchair height tables for having a coffee and reading.
❑ Some shade for when it is very hot
❑ Shelter if it is raining but still warm enough to sit out.
❑ A smooth ground surface for wheelchairs and for walking
❑ Sensory plants that would be nice to smell and touch
❑ A water feature

 

How you can help

The garden will take in the region of £150,000 to build, of which we have so far raised £70,000.  Would you be able to help us raise the rest?

If you would like to help deliver this project by donating to the overall funding
target, or by purchasing a funding package please get in touch by either phoning,
emailing or messaging me Javid Jenkins, Charity Director, on 07947 531099 or email Shirley Clipp shirley.clipp@nhs.net.

Your generosity makes all this possible. Find out more about the charity here.

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