The Army Benevolent Fund is delighted to award a £20,000 grant to HighGround towards its horticultural therapy service for injured soldiers.
Supporting the health and wellbeing of soldiers is a priority area for our charity. HighGround’s mission is to improve the wellbeing and employment prospects of serving personnel using the green environment. Since 2014, we have funded HighGround’s pioneering work on horticultural therapy as part of the clinical interventions available for rehabilitating injured patients.
Our latest grant will fund the delivery of both one-to-one and group horticultural therapy sessions to injured soldiers at the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre (DMRC), Stanford Hall, near Loughborough. Many have complex neurological and other physical disabilities and require specialist therapy to help improve their fine motor skills, mobility and mental health. The therapy covers a wide range of horticultural and gardening activities and projects.
Anna Baker Cresswell, Executive Director Highground, said:
“I am profoundly grateful to the Army Benevolent Fund for its continued and generous support of HighGround’s Horticultural Therapy service for injured serving personnel, especially in these very challenging times when fundraising for all charities is more difficult than I can remember. Without the ABF’s support for the pilot at DMRC Headley Court to test the benefits of Horticultural Therapy as a rehab intervention in 2013, the hundreds of injured soldiers who have found benefit since then would have missed out.”
Brigadier (Ret’d) Peter Monteith, Chief Operating Officer Army Benevolent Fund, added:
“Helping soldiers to recover from serious injuries and improve their health and wellbeing goes to the heart of our charity’s mission. We were only too pleased this year to continue our support for HighGround’s innovative and inspiring therapy which has had such a positive impact on so many in the Army family.
