Thrive has published research in its members’ magazine Growth Point which highlights how gardening can help people with young onset dementia.
Learning from what we do, capturing evidence, sharing ideas and finding better ways to help change lives through gardening is all part of the way Thrive works.
Thrive is the only charity in the UK which enables those touched by disability to transform their lives through gardening.
We know gardening can improve physical health, emotional well being and communication, and we monitor the progress made by each of our gardeners.
During our year-long project, Structured gardening for young onset dementia, working alongside Berkshire Healthcare NHS Trust, we sought to discover if gardening activities could help younger people with dementia.
Although a small sample, the findings are positive. When asked to rate the changes, carers said they felt participants remained much as they had been in terms of memory and concentration, but that mood and sociability was likely to have improved.
Cath Rickhuss, Thrive’s Head of Training and Education, said: "We found other benefits were for the carers themselves. As well as providing the obvious respite, many said leaving their loved one at Thrive created a far less feeling of guilt.
"The programme helped people re-connect with their friends and family, before, during and after gardening through shared experiences. Gardening can improve sleep and stimulate the senses – particularly smell – which often promotes people to share memories.
"There are cost savings too. It is thought that dementia costs the economy more than £23 billion a year – more than cancer and heart disease – and an ever increasing burden on the NHS and care homes. Yet a garden project placement at Thrive can cost as little as £53 per day.
"Further research and investment is needed to help those affected with dementia and to evidence the positive benefits of gardening as a real option and alternative treatment, as gardening really can help change lives."
Former microbiologist Simon took part in the programme and his wife Sally said coming to Thrive has greatly improved the quality of his life.
"Thrive has a beautiful, peaceful environment," said Sally. "I think Simon feels 'normal’ there as it is about as far removed from the day centre care as is possible.
"There is a feeling of freedom and it has helped him have a sense of purpose and raised his self esteem. Cooking some of the produce he has helped to grow is a great end result which we can share.
"For me, Thrive is probably the only place of the several which Simon attends which I don’t feel guilty about him going to. I think the whole ethos of the place addresses his needs."
Dementia refers to a progressive decline in a person’s ability to think, remember and reason, and young onset dementia (YOD) refers to the symptoms starting before the age of 65.
As well as the loss of skills and memory, people who have YOD often retire from work early and show a higher level of depression, anxiety and often suffer from aggressive outbursts, hallucinations and delusions.
As a result, carers, often a spouse or older children, suffer increased stress compared with carers of elderly people with dementia. YOD therefore impacts both the sufferer and carer to a greater extent than dementia in an older person.
There is no cure for dementia but research continues into this area. There are medications available to slow deterioration and help manage symptoms.
The nature of dementia means the individual can no longer function in their usual way which means they are likely to become isolated from others as they cannot manage the social and occupational activities they used to enjoy with their peers.
People with YOD are further disadvantaged because they do not identify with the elderly population with dementia which means they need alternative sources of meaningful activity, such as community gardens (research by Parr, 2007).
Thrive continues to work with people with young onset dementia and is seeking more funding so more people can be helped.
Thrive also wants to carry out more research in this field. A future project could explore the feelings of isolation and abandonment that have been identified as centre of the experience of people with YOD (Harries & Keady, 2009) and their relationship with the development of group belonging and meaningful occupation as well as taking measures of cognitive emotional well being.