Joe Sempik - Social and Therapeutic Horticulture: Measuring it effects on Social behaviour
Welcome back to SHOUT and our 2014/2015 programme. For our
first session we will be hearing from Joe Sempik, a senior sociology researcher
from Nottingham University. He will be talking to us about the effects of
Horticultural initiatives on social behaviour. Joe initially qualified as a pharmacologist,
more recently completing a Masters in Environmental Management and moving into
sociology research, specifically around the therapeutic benefits of horticulture
or ‘green care’ on well-being . He is an accomplished
speaker and researcher and has published many articles on the topic and spoken
at many different conferences including the Cumbrian OT graduate conference as
the keynote speaker and for the Thrive conference, the UK charity for horticultural
therapy amongst a few.
Occupational Therapists have long since been aware of the therapeutic
benefits of gardening with many Mental Health settings having therapeutic
gardens and/ or allotments for use with their clients. Sheffield is lucky to have facilities such as SAGE greenfingers in Burngreave http://www.sagesheffield.org.uk/
that works with
adults to promote Mental and emotional well-bring and Heeley City Farm http://www.heeleyfarm.org.uk/ a social enterprise that
offers employment training for adults through the use of horticultural
interventions. Further to this, many of
the local hospitals have their own gardens which are used for interventions
with clients to promote well-being.
Culturally, with austerity and spend-thrift measures becoming more
common place, a rise in the interest and popularity of creative interventions
such as crafts and gardening is spreading and with this a recognition of the
additional benefits to well-being is again being acknowledged.
With the likelihood of usage of horticultural therapy in
practice therefore we believe this event will equip you with the knowledge and background
to be able to explain and justify the usage of horticultural interventions and
gain a more in depth understanding of their effects on social behaviour. Joe will use his experience from being the chair of the international working group on
the health benefits of ‘Green Care’ as part of the European Science
Foundation’s COST Action 866, and his extensive years in research into the well-being
of Children and vulnerable adults to explain and disseminate the links between
horticulture and well-being to bring to you a both informative and insightful
talk on the topic. Please join us for
this likely sell-out event!
For tickets email shout.event@gmail.com to reserve your place £2 students/ BAOT members £3 non members. ALL WELCOME!
