Gardening, art, sport – 'prescriptions' for mental health that don't involve pills Social prescribing, where patients are referred to non-clinical activities, is producing positive outcomes. But can the voluntary sector keep up with demand?
Group therapeutic work had never appealed to Kerina, who was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder in her 30s after suffering from mental health issues all her life. “You sit there reading paperwork and it feels like you’re in a classroom,” she says.
Then two years ago the community mental health team in Mid Ross in the Scottish Highlands gave her a “social prescription” – referring her to Branching Out, a Forestry Commission Scotland programme designed to help people recover from long-term mental health problems. For 12 weeks she spent five hours a week in the woods doing conservation work, bushcraft and environmental art. Continue reading... The Guardian
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