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Lottery funds care home gardens

3 February 2016

By James

The National Lottery has provided a large grant for care homes to build gardens.

£1.3 million has been provided from the fund to help modify outdoor spaces, which charity Learning Through Landscapes says helps patients with dementia by allowing them to recall their own gardens and other time spent outdoors.

Sue Cliffe from Age UK Herne Bay, where the scheme was trialled, said: “since we have made the changes our service users engage so much more with the outdoors.” The scheme was also commended for “improving mobility, increasing relaxation and reducing anxiety.”

According to Dawn Austwick, the chief executive of the Big Lottery Fund, the project will allow people with dementia to be more independent, and most of the spaces which will be built have been designed with input from the patients themselves.

An initial ten care homes will benefit from the grant, including two in the North East: Edith Moffat House in North Shields and Cedar Grove Wellbeing Centre in Wallsend.

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