A flower, a bee, a ray of sunshine ... how the NHS is taking healing outdoors

For Hayleigh Austin-Richards, it is a place to have a cry, breathe fresh air and remind herself there is something magical about butterflies.

- Donna Ferguson

As often as she can, the ward manager of Chapel Allerton’s stroke rehabilitation unit in Leeds visits the hospital’s “Garden for Recovery”, originally created for the Chelsea Flower Show and installed last summer.

Austin-Richards’s job can be hectic and tough, and she sees people going through some of the worst moments of their lives. The garden is a refuge: “It’s quiet. The way it’s designed, it brings you in and shelters you in it. You feel like you're in the middle of nowhere,” she said.

“Having a few minutes or half an hour out there, sometimes in the sunshine - it helps. You decompress, and go back to work with renewed energy and a fresh set of eyes, feeling more cheerful and more focused.”

With stress among NHS staff at record levels, and as the awareness of the psychological benefits of being in nature increases, growing numbers of NHS hospital trusts are noticing the untapped potential of their outdoor spaces and turning to gardeners for help. In the past 10 months alone, 16 NHS hospitals, GPs and other healthcare settings have contacted the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) to ask for help creating “wellbeing gardens” for staff, patients and visitors.