Medway garden helping men's mental health

Medway Men in Sheds - a scheme commissioned by A Better Medway  has been coming together to help combat loneliness.   Mahima Abedin reports.

Transcript

00:00This garden in Medway is said to be a safe space for men to come together and socialise

00:04so their mental health can flourish.

00:06Medway's Men in Sheds is a scheme which hopes to better men's wellbeing by inviting people

00:11to participate in different activities.

00:13Today's was gardening.

00:15What I hope we've done is enable guys with maybe low self-esteem to do things and to

00:24be effective.

00:26Some of the guys that come here maybe haven't been out of their house for three years.

00:31People get used to spending time on their own, they become poorly socialised, so for

00:39most people they tell me this is a gentle place, it's welcoming.

00:44I think that projects like this, you might think of this as a social prescription because

00:53it gets people relating to each other.

00:57According to the local government association, men in England are facing a silent health

01:01crisis as four out of every five suicides are men.

01:05It's helped my mental health, yes.

01:07I come here every couple of weeks.

01:09I come here to socialise with people who come here and chat to while I'm doing a bit of

01:17gardening.

01:18I enjoy gardening.

01:19So today's Men in Sheds session is a gardening session, but what I've learnt since being

01:23here is that the gates are actually open to anyone and everyone who wants to join in to

01:26garden or make some new friends, like Corinne here who's about to show me how to do this.

01:31If you could really nicely put some compost in here, it's nice and moist.

01:36There we are.

01:37So after I retired, I wanted something to do that was still people orientated.

01:45When I was at one of my worst, I was just sent home from work and told to get on with

01:50it.

01:51And they didn't hear me, they didn't see me.

01:53I think the fact that I can keep on sharing and caring and doing and being amongst all

02:01this lovely, beautiful flowers, trees, greenery, yeah, it's been a godsend.

02:07While Corinne and Alan say showing up to these sessions help their mental health, they worry

02:11others may find it difficult to take the first step and show up.

02:15Something groups like Medway Men in Sheds hopes to make easier.

02:18Mahima Abedin for KMTV in Medway.