Publish date: 3 November 2022
The Trust Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) were invited to a local Ealing school on Tuesday 01 November as they received an award winning RHS Chelsea Flower show to their grounds.
The pupils at Viking Primary School were the proud recipients of a green oasis in the heart of their inner city school. The ‘Securing Tomorrow’ garden was developed in partnership with children’s mental health charity Place2Be, Sarasin and partners and designed by the Royal Horticulture Society ambassador and horticulturist Jamie Butterworth.
The idea for the garden took shape during the early part of the Coronavirus pandemic when Jamie said his mother a Primary school teacher shared the challenges many children faced with their development, social isolation and missed time with their peers. Jamie felt he wanted to do something that could help the children. So he connected with the team at the Royal Chelsea Flower show and Place2Be charity who provide children’s mental health support in schools across the country including Viking Primary. Through numerous sessions the pupils and Jamie worked together to design the garden, often with the use of play dough to capture the children’s vision.
It was so well received that it won the gold medal award at this year’s Royal Chelsea Flower show.
The West London Child and Adolescent Mental Health services (CAMHS) were invited to be part of the garden opening through the work our Mental Health Support Team (MHST) Education Wellbeing Practitioner (EWP) Crystal Fletcher has been carrying out with the pupils at Viking Primary. As part of the early intervention approach Crystal has worked with the pupils and their parents through 1:1 guided sessions.
Crystal said a key area of her work was to raise mental health awareness amongst staff, parents and children. Most recently in the Summer, Crystal arranged workshops with the year six students to help prepare them for their move to high school with useful techniques. She said “common talking points were worry of changes, excitement and a new network being formed. The exercises focussed on body maps for the children to recognise the physical and mental symptoms.
Breathing techniques, talking to people, being outdoors in nature were some of the early intervention approaches used.”
The West London NHS trust have been working together with primary and secondary schools across Ealing and Hounslow for two years providing mental health support.
Keyur Joshi Associate Director of CAMHS and Developmental services said “this is a guided self-help model, through early intervention and prevention the CAMHS teams are working proactively to breakdown the stigma associated with mental health”.
Keyur added, eleven schools in the Borough of Ealing are covered by Place2Be and through collaborative work we can continue to raise awareness around children’s mental health and the work we do in the Trust.
“Our environment plays a significant part in how we feel and this garden will offer the children the space to reflect and reconnect with themselves and nature.”
The project doesn’t quite end there, going forward the children will be actively involved along with the horticulture team in the maintenance of the garden.