RESEARCH
The Impact of Therapeutic Community Gardening on the Wellbeing, Loneliness, and Life Satisfaction of Individuals with Mental Illness
Summary
This study, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, investigated the long-term impact of therapeutic community gardening on the wellbeing, loneliness, and life satisfaction of individuals referred for support with their mental illness. Conducted at a program called Growing Together (GT) in Essex, UK, the study utilized a longitudinal design tracking 53 participants over multiple timepoints, on average 3.27 years for wellbeing and shorter periods for loneliness and life satisfaction. This research was notable for assessing outcomes specifically in individuals with diagnosed mental illness, addressing a gap in prior literature, and for evaluating the intervention prior to and across the coronavirus pandemic, a significant environmental context that impacted national wellbeing. Measures included the SWEMWBS for wellbeing, the De Jong Gierveld loneliness scale, and a single-item life satisfaction scale, with both primary data collected via surveys and secondary wellbeing data from routine service evaluations included. Due to participant dropout over time, particularly in the later follow-up points, statistical methods like Latent Growth Modelling and multiple imputation were employed to analyze the data, which was found to be missing completely at random.
The results indicated that attendance at the therapeutic community garden was associated with significant positive changes in wellbeing over time, showing both linear and quadratic growth trajectories. While male wellbeing improvements occurred earlier and then plateaued, female wellbeing fluctuated more gradually and peaked later, revealing significant gender differences in the quadratic growth. Although baseline wellbeing for both males and females was significantly lower than UK population norms, scores at later follow-up points were generally not significantly different from or showed trends towards the national average. Loneliness and life satisfaction also fluctuated during the pandemic tracking period, with social loneliness decreasing by the final timepoint, moving members into the “not socially lonely” category based on published cut points. Life satisfaction improved between the first and later timepoints, no longer being significantly lower than the UK national average after the initial measurement. The study suggests these improvements occurred even during a period when national wellbeing was decreasing, supporting the intervention’s potential effectiveness. Limitations included participant dropout, the impact of the pandemic, and the lack of true baseline data for loneliness and life satisfaction for the entire sample, highlighting the need for future rigorous, long-term tracking studies.
