Serenity Garden at George Eliot Hospital

The effects of stroke and dementia are profound. The impact can be physical; psychological; financial and/or social. These effects often extend beyond the individual to include family, friends and the wider community. Due to these issues patients affected by stroke and dementia may require inpatient hospital care. This can be a frightening, disorientating and upsetting experience for all. 

In an attempt to support individuals affected by stroke and dementia during their hospital stay, staff are raising funds to support the creation of the ‘Serenity Garden’. 

The garden will offer people affected by stroke and dementia the opportunity to participate in a wide range of activities including pet, gardening, music and therapies as well as a beautiful open space away from the clinical areas.

My husband loved the outdoors, his favourite hobbies were walking (covering distances of up to 7 miles in one day) and gardening (we spent a lot of quality time in the garden and took pride in keeping our garden looking pristine in all weathers). Even after he was diagnosed, his love for the garden did not diminish. However, his diagnosis had a negative effect on his confidence as he would worry that he would forget his address and end up getting lost. 

My husband was admitted to George Eliot Hospital in July 2018 and remained in hospital for 6 weeks. During this time, his cognition deteriorated due to infections and this affected his mobility. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take him home as he needs ongoing care and he was placed in a nursing home.

I feel that if the garden had been available during my husband’s inpatient stay, his deterioration would have been delayed. I would have been happy to walk around the garden with him so that it was not time consuming for the nursing staff. Having access to soil and garden tools may have helped my husband to trigger memories. 

“I am 46 and in August 2018 I suffered 2 strokes.

My wife and I have 5 children and had just got married in the May so to suddenly have 2 strokes was a huge shock.

After the first stroke I didn’t have any mobility issues and was able to walk around, the ward can be noisy and hard to collect your thoughts so I used to escape to a bench just outside the doors, which faced a car park and the busy hospital environment, but being outside gave me that little bit of breathing space.

After the second stroke I unfortunately did end up with reduced mobility and was confined to the ward for many weeks. Although the staff are amazing I started to feel like a prisoner not having anywhere to escape to other than the visits to physio.

The first time I was allowed to leave the ward in a chair I just wanted to sit outside and try to get my head around what was happening but again I was greeted with noisy cars and people coming and going.

It was hard to see my children and I would often go days without seeing them due to being on the ward. After hearing about the garden I wished this had been available when I was on the ward, this would have been a wonderful place to sit and gather my thoughts in peace and quiet and to be able to spend some private time with my family. I believe it would have been more of an incentive to work harder in physio with it being outdoors and facing real situations such as uneven ground.

The pet and gardening sensory areas sound incredible and I could imagine would be fantastic for rehabilitation. I know that had this all been available for me I would have used it all to its full potential instead of feeling like rehab was clinical. I think it will be fantastic and that stroke patients will find it helps them in their road to recovery.”

(Our patients and their families gave permission for us to use these case studies.)