New Rehabilitation Garden For Hospital

A new £45,000 rehabilitation garden at Musgrave Park Hospital will help those with disabilities to lead more fulfilling, independent lives, Health Minister Edwin Poots has said.

The garden was designed to provide a rehabilitation and therapeutic environment to enable wheelchair patients, and patients who have been fitted with artificial limbs, to develop the necessary functional skills in the use of their new wheelchair or prosthesis.

Minister Poots said: "Spending time outside in a garden has been shown to positively affect a person's emotions and improve their sense of well-being. Relaxing in this peaceful environment can help lower blood pressure and reduce stress.

"With its innovative mixture of different surfaces, from grass to bark and cobblestones, the garden will help patients with disabilities to learn to cope with surfaces that they will encounter in their daily lives. The wooden ramp will be help patients to learn how to negotiate going up and down a wheelchair access slope."

Referring to the involvement of members of the Prosthetic User Forum at Musgrave Park Hospital in the design of the garden, Mr Poots added: "Bringing real-life experiences to the table and incorporating those ideas into the design of the garden will ensure its success.

"This garden is a magnificent facility which can only have a positive effect on the health and wellbeing of all who use it - patients and their families, as well as staff and visitors. I have no doubt that it will help many people with disabilities to lead more fulfilling and independent lives."

Colm Donaghy, Chief Executive Belfast Health and Social Care Services, added: "I am delighted this innovative garden has opened in the grounds of Musgrave Park Hospital. We hope the garden will provide a rehabilitative and therapeutic environment for patients, and that it will be used as a quiet and relaxed space by their relatives and friends."

(JP/CD)