Safe, sensory space will care for carers

BEHIND the Shannon’s Bridge End of Life Care Hub in Creswick is a backyard full of potential.

It’s set to become a sensory garden to service the palliative care charity’s current and former clients needing emotional support, and a safe, pleasant, non-medical escape… If only for a moment.

Director, Dr Claire Hepper said the initiative is community led.

“When we started operating out of here, to help upskill the community to care for their own, they said, ‘why don’t we have a sensory garden? We would like that’,” she said.

“It will be a reflective space, focusing on care of the carer, and also grief and bereavement. Sometimes people need somewhere they can just sit and be.

“Our main proviso is that it’s wheelchair accessible and safe in a sensory way for people of all abilities and cognitions. It’s a place where death literacy can be promoted and not shut down.”

To start, Shannon’s Bridge has been given mosaic pots, park benches, a wheelchair accessible garden bed and a fountain from the old Bethlehem Hospital site in Melbourne.

Haymes is offering as much paint as the area needs, builders have volunteered, a local artist is keen to create a wind sculpture, a couple of families have covered electrical costs, and a pizza oven has been donated.

The basics, like timber for raised garden beds, compacted mulch for paths, and concrete are all needed too.

Completely relying on help and donated resources to complete the outdoor project, Dr Hepper hopes the process will be an intergenerational collaboration.

“We’re taking everyone’s ideas and trying to meld those together,” she said. “We’re inspired, talking to some local men’s sheds about having other raised garden beds.

“We’ve got lovely connections with Creswick Primary School. They have projects where their year 6 children go and do community activities, so they could do gardening and paint some panels for the fences.

“It’s not just the art of making the garden, it’s about sharing skills,” Dr Hepper said.

Shannon’s Bridge director and general manager, Jeremy McKnight said the sensory area will benefit people of all ages as another “all inclusive” element of the End of Life Care Hub.

“Everything we offer here is for free,” he said. “It’s all run 100 per cent by volunteers, and the more we can offer to take the pressure off a person, the better.”

To help financially visit gofundme.com/f/2825bdje and state that you would like your donation directed to the sensory garden. Contact [email protected] for your funds to be tax deductible.

Shannon’s Bridge closes the gap in palliative care services, improves rural end of life care, and supports grievers and carers.