Can you help to transform this garden for patients with dementia
Blue Skies Hospitals Fund is calling on local building firms, garden companies and anyone with an interest in gardening to pledge their support for a new interactive garden for patients with dementia.
Blue Skies, the charity for Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, has been raising money through its Peace of Mind dementia appeal for a safe, secure and interactive garden at Clifton Hospital, which will help to enhance the care given to patients who have dementia.
The garden will feature planting beds where patients will be able recall a time when they might have tended to their own garden, and will be a safe space where they are free to walk about and enjoy the great outdoors without the need of a nurse present.
Funding is now in place to allow work to start on the garden, but to limit the amount of charity money spent on professional works, Blue Skies is asking for time to be given by anyone, professional or not, who is keen to help out.
Head of Fundraising, Caroline Scholz, said: “A lot of work has gone in to raise money for this garden project through our Peace of Mind appeal, and we’re now pleased to say we are in a position to start work.
“It would be so nice if there were any professional landscape gardeners or building firms who would be willing to give their time in helping get this project started so we can show how people’s kind donations are being used.
“This garden will be a fantastic enhancement to the care already given across the whole of Clifton Hospital, and will allow patients from any ward the space and freedom of the great outdoors.”
Clifton Hospital has held a number of events to raise money for Blue Skies Hospitals Fund’s Peace of Mind dementia appeal, including last year’s Christmas Fair, opened by Anne Nolan
It is hoped work will begin on the garden project in the spring.
Clifton Matron, Courtney Bickerdike, said: “This garden has been one of the main goals right from the beginning of the Peace of Mind appeal, and it’s so exciting now that we are making plans for how it will look and how our patients can make the best of this fantastic space we have.
“We have spent the last year raising money to make this happen through Blue Skies Hospitals Fund and we are very grateful to those who have donated money and visited us at our Christmas and summer fairs. Now we’re asking for people to donate their time to help make this the best garden for our patients.”
Anyone who is willing to help is asked to contact Blue Skies Hospitals Fund on 01253 957381.
For more details about the Peace of Mind dementia appeal, visit https://www.bfwh.nhs.uk/blueskies/dementiaproject.shtml.