Mental health and wellbeing benefits from a prisons horticultural programme

• Pages: 91-104
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPH-11-2017-0055
• Date: 11 March 2019
• Published date: 11 March 2019
• Author: Alan Farrier,Michelle Baybutt,Mark Dooris
• Subject Matter: Health & social care

Mental health and wellbeing benefits from

a prisons horticultural programme

Alan Farrier, Michelle Baybutt and Mark Dooris

Abstract

Purpose –In the context of current prison safety and reform, the purpose of this paper is to discuss findings

of an impact evaluation of a horticultural programme delivered in 12 prisons in North West England.

Design/methodology/approach –The programme was evaluated using quantitative and qualitative

methods, including Green Gym© questionnaires, the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale

(WEMWBS) and Biographic-Narrative Interpretive Method interviews.

Findings –Against a backdrop of high rates of suicide, self-harm and poor mental health, the horticultural

programme studied proved beneficial to prisoner participants, the most marked effect was on mental

health and wellbeing. In addition to data related to the original mental health outcome indicators,

the study revealed multiple layers of “added value”related to mental health arising from horticultural work in a

prison setting.

Research limitations/implications –The main research limitations were the limited completion of

follow-on questionnaires due to prisoners being released and the inability to conduct longitudinal data

collection post-release. There was also concern about response bias and lack of resource to compare with

the experience of prisoners not participating in the programme.

Social implications –Positive impacts on prisoners’mental health and wellbeing included increased

confidence, social interactions with staff and other prisoners and gaining skills and qualifications and work

experience, increasing potential for post-release employment.

Originality/value –Benefits of horticulture work on health are well established. However, to date, there is

little research concerning the effects this work may have on mental wellbeing of prisoners both within prisons

and more so upon their release back into the community.

Keywords Prisoners, Rehabilitation, Mental health, Qualitative research, Horticulture, Health promotingprison

Paper type Research paper

Background

Prisoners and mental wellbeing

In England and Wales, increasing numbers of people are serving time in prison on custodial

sentences (Public Health England, 2016). The 2016 prison population of England and

Wales exceeded 85,000 (Allen and Watson, 2017), nearly double that two decades previously

(Ministry of Justice, 2013a). Although 95.4 per cent of this population is male (Ministry of Justice,

2014), the number of women in prison has more than doubled over the same period (Prison

Reform Trust, 2017).

Data consistently show that prisoners have high levels of poor physical and mental

health –alongside poor levels of literacy, numeracy and educational achievement –and that

these factors are strongly associated with offending behaviour (Social Exclusion Unit, 2002;

HM Government, 2005). For example, 72 per cent of male and 70 per cent of female prisoners

are affected by two or more mental health disorders (Prison Reform Trust, 2015). Suicide rates

are significantl y higher in custody t han amongst the gene ral population: 16 per cent of the

prison population have symptoms indicative of psychosis and 25 per cent identify as suffering

from anxiety and depression; and 46 per cent of women and 21 per cent of men have

Received 24 November 2017

Revised 17 April 2018

17 July 2018

Accepted 24 July 2018

This research was funded by Big

Lottery Fund. The funding body

specified that data should be

gathered on specific outcome

indicators, but also allowed the

research team to search for

additional outcomes from the

programme.

Alan Farrier, Michelle Baybutt

and Mark Dooris are all based

at the Healthy and Sustainable

Settings Unit, Faculty of Health

and Wellbeing, University of

Central Lancashire,

Preston, UK.

DOI 10.1108/IJPH-11-2017-0055 VOL. 15 NO. 1 2019, pp. 91-104, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1744-9200

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