Volunteer Gardener - Young Onset Dementia Group

With a underused sensory garden and garden at the back, Highpoint House, home to Children & Young Peoples therapies has an invaluable opportunity to:-

1. Bring people together to improve their health and wellbeing

2. Improve the aesthetics of the sensory garden

3. Be creative in providing a calm and relaxing space within the sensory garden

4. Co-produce with service users and the local community

5. Improve biodiversity through plant diversity

6. Provide good quality habitat for wildlife

7. Allow nature to be therapeutic

8. Increase the quality of access to nature

9. Reduce harmful practice in daily practice to limit the loss to our eco-systems.

Key Task and Responsibilities

A volunteer would provide invaluable support to

1. Maintain planted areas, with regular watering, weeding, mulching etc.

2. Support improvements to the sensory garden

3. Create wildlife habitats, such as insect hotels, bird boxes

4. Monitor butterflies, pollinators, plants and other wildlife

5. Work alongside and support volunteer gardener at Memorial Hospital site

6. Work with small groups of service users as garden buddies

7. Share knowledge and experience with garden buddies

8. Encourage participation of garden buddies

9. Maintain and monitor the upkeep of any tools and materials

10. Report any concerns or issues about garden buddies to named employee for Oxleas NHS Trust at that time

11. Report any concerns or issues about the garden or materials to the Sustainability Manager

When working with Oxleas Service Users

Responsibility for the group (or any service user working with the volunteer) will lie with a named employee of Oxleas NHS Trust. Someone employed by the Trust will be with the group (or individual) throughout any activity