Dr Katrin Wilhelm is a senior researcher in environmental science, heritage and wellbeing, working across the Department of Psychiatry and the School of Geography and the Environment. Dr Wilhelm is also a tutor at Regent’s Park College. Here she outlines the findings from the study, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre, which was published in the journal Wellbeing, Space and Society.
Behind the high fences of a psychiatric intensive care unit (PICU), safety tends to come first and nature tends to come last. These are among the most tightly controlled spaces in mental healthcare, designed to manage acute crises in some of the most vulnerable young people in the country. Yet a growing body of research shows that access and exposure to green space can ease stress, support recovery, and help staff cope in demanding workplaces. A new study from the University of Oxford asked a simple but provocative question: could biodiverse planting and therapeutic gardening be brought into a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) PICU without compromising safety?
A barren starting point
The Meadow Unit at the Warneford Hospital is a Tier 4 Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) psychiatric intensive care unit, a short-stay ward for young people in acute mental health crisis who need intensive, highly supervised care. Like many such units, it included an outdoor space, but it had limited use or therapeutic role. The outdoor space adjoining the ward was a sloping patch of compacted, poorly draining soil with minimal planting. Staff described it as "barren" and "depressing" a space that offered little sense of refuge, and even less sense of supporting recovery or wellbeing.
Read the full story on the Department of Psychiatry website.