Hospital Gardening Volunteer
South London and Maudsley NHS Trust
We are looking for volunteers to help run gardening sessions in the garden at the Ladywell Unit. The garden is open to all inpatients, who are escorted by their ward support staff.
The Ladywell Unit is one of our inpatient units, based at Lewisham Hospital. It includes a Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) Ward for men and women, aged 18-65, requiring intensive psychiatric care. It also provides short-stay intensive assessment and treatment for people with acute mental illness who have been referred from other inpatient services. The Unit has six wards. We are looking for volunteers to help run gardening sessions in the garden at the Ladywell Unit. The garden is open to all inpatients, who are escorted by their ward support staff. With this role, we envisage that volunteers will come to the garden and engage service users with simple gardening tasks. The volunteers and service users will help to maintain the garden, doing tasks such as watering, planting bulbs (depending on the time of year), and clearing weeds. No knowledge of gardening is required, but it would be a bonus! Note: this role does not involve volunteering on the inpatient wards
Gardening,Environmental
Building & Maintenance, Cleaning & Tidying, Conservation, Gardening
Interest in gardening and nature Comfortable working outside and doing manual activities Strong communication and listening skills Team working skills Awareness of mental health issues (or a willingness to learn) Empathy Patience Commitment and reliability Experience of facilitating groups and/or activities (desirable)
Expenses paid DBS check Support from Occupational Therapy staff and the Volunteer Coordinator Professional reference after 6 months of volunteering Opportunity to experience volunteering in a healthcare setting
Weekdays between 9:00-1:00pm and 2:00-5:00pm Commitment: 2-3 hours per week; 9 months
Se13 6lh
The Ladywell Unit Lewisham Hospital Lewisham High Street SE13 6LH
By rail: The nearest station is Ladywell (Zone 3). From Central London - Waterloo East, London Bridge, Cannon Street and Charing Cross - take the Hayes train. By DLR: Lewisham Station (main line and Docklands Light Railway) is approximately 20 minutes away by foot and a short bus ride away. from there the journey has to be completed by bus or taxi. By bus: 47 (24hrs), 54, 75 (24hrs), 122, 136, 185, 199, 208, 284, 484, P4 and N36.
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