The Grow Project was a unique collaboration between the University of Brighton and Grow. Grow is dedicated to providing outdoor mental health support. Grow’s eight week ‘Seasons’ are based at Saddlescombe farm, a National Trust site in Sussex. Grow is designed to support people with experience of mental distress to experience the wellbeing benefits of connecting with nature, in a safe & supportive group. Grow offers flexibility to choose from a wide range of activities to suit varying levels of mental & physical health, in beautiful rural Sussex. Each Grow season has included participants experiencing a range of mild to moderate & enduring mental health difficulties. After being part of a closed group Season, people can continue on to Grow’s ‘drop-in’ days, which also offer a wide variety of nature based activities and community, as well as close links to other nature-based projects.

The collaboration involved a psychologist and psychotherapist from the University with coordinators, volunteers, former and current participants in a Grow season. The Community University Partnership Programme’s On Our Doorsteps initiative funded time and space for the University to collaborate with Grow’s directors and participants. The main purpose of the collaboration was to explore the positive improvements in mental health and wellbeing reported by participants in the scheme to date. We worked towards this aim by collating existing evidence, subsequently carrying out some targeted qualitative research, and by relating the findings to existing literature. Finally, we considered the implications of our results for mental health practitioners, policy makers and other decision-makers. A further aspect of our working together was people involved in Grow talking to undergraduate psychology students about ecotherapy, and the first steps towards student volunteering links.

We found that people really valued the positive experiences they had being got from being involved in the Grow project, and that this positivity was clearly connected to the experience of being in nature. This positivity was articulated, for example, in terms of peace, calm, forgetfulness, and alertness to one’s senses. There were other things that people valued though – the sense of autonomy (being in control of one’s own actions, having choice), belonging and identity. Although we can separate these areas out as ‘findings’, in terms of what people actually told us, benefits all seemed to be related to each other. So, for example, being in a natural setting and having choice about what to do in it facilitated better group dynamics, which helped create a genuine feeling of belonging, which in turn encouraged a more positive self-identity, therefore allowing individuals to be more at ease and enjoy the natural setting.

Our recommendations included adding to calls for ecotherapy to be recognised as a clinically valid treatment for people with diverse lived experiences of mental distress; increasing access to green space; and the importance of a balance between structure and choice in encouraging positive experiences – natural settings in themselves are not enough, and the enormous amount of dialogue and user involvement is a testament to what makes Grow special.

Please follow this link to view the video evaluation of the ‘Grow’ Project'- https://mediastream.brighton.ac.uk/Player/5442

Matt Adams, Principal Lecturer in Psychology School of Applied Social Science

http://www.growingwellbeing.org.uk/