In August I had the pleasure of meeting (virtually) Liz Everard. Liz, an experienced mental health nurse, is one of the 2019 Hocking Fellows researching therapeutic care farming and previously, she worked on a residential therapeutic care farm in the Netherlands for four years.
During that time she learnt first hand about the different approaches, therapies and practices that benefited the residents, supported them, and promoted their return to health. She decided to return to Tasmania with the vision of setting up her own therapeutic care farm.
I feel that this approach to care farming is quite different to anything I have seen thus far in the UK. It supports individuals with complex mental health needs by offering them a home on the farm, usually for six months to two years, during which time they learn new skills through farming whilst receiving specialist mental health care from highly qualified staff.
The families of those entering the programme are encouraged to support their loved ones as they move through the process and robust transition support is put in place to help the residents as they prepare to return to their own communities.
Liz has also set up the organisation Care Farming Australia and I hope we will be able to collaborate on future projects as we both move through our Fellowships.
I wish Liz every success with her research and the farm project and look forward to visiting in the future should the opportunity become available.
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