Care Home Call For Public Support In Bid To Create Sensory Garden

An East Riding care home for people with dementia is calling for the public’s support in their bid to create a sensory garden for residents.

The Old School House, in Beverley – an East Riding of Yorkshire Council care home for people with advanced dementia – is one of three local groups shortlisted in the Tesco Bags of Help scheme.

Tesco have teamed up with Groundwork to launch a community funding scheme which to date has awarded £40 million to 9,700 community projects across the UK.

This means the care home could receive a grant of up to £4,000 to be used to create a vibrant and stimulating sensory garden to benefit the health and wellbeing of their residents but they need your votes.

Barry Cansfield, manager at The Old School House, said:

“It is widely recognised that garden therapy can help with dementia as it stimulates the mind and provides activities of purpose, engaging their independence.

“We are very lucky to have safe outdoor areas but this funding would allow us to develop a sensory garden that would encourage our residents to take part in social activities, allowing for communication and relationship building.

“We are really excited to have been shortlisted in the scheme and we would encourage people to show their support for what promises to be a fantastic project by voting for The Old School House.”

Tesco customers visiting the Beverley store can cast their vote throughout March and April by using a token given to them at the checkout.

Groundwork’s National Chief Executive, Graham Duxbury, said:

“We’ve been thrilled to see the diversity of projects that have applied for funding, ranging from outdoor classrooms, sports facilities, community gardens, play areas and everything in between.

“We’re looking forward to learning the results of the customer vote and then supporting each group to bring their project to life.”