The goals of any rehabilitation programme should be driven by the individual client and their environment in its widest sense. However, rehabilitation following brain injury continues to be driven by a model which focuses on the regaining of basic activity of daily living skills and, once an optimum level has been achieved, little thought and subsequently funding is given to enabling clients to discover new skills or redevelop previous interests and hobbies which will sustain them in the longer term.

For one of my clients, her garden; sympathetically adapted, has provided the focus for a successful year-long project which has encompassed recording the seasonal changes in the garden through photography, growing a range of vegetables (tomatoes, aubergine and peppers) on the window ledge and using the fruits of her labour in her cooking.

Activities associated with the garden have formed the basis for her day to day routine by providing opportunities for planning: outings, meals, additions to the garden and maintenance of her ongoing projects. Love of gardening and her garden have become a shared conversation topic for all who visit her bungalow and a muse for her creative writing. In short her garden and gardening has engendering a sense of well being, purpose and satisfaction leading to a quality of life that she could only dream about during her 11 years of inpatient rehabilitation.

Doreen Tighe DipCOT SROT (Occupational Therapist)