The youth mental health service of West London NHS Trust was invited to a local school in Ealing this week as it received a gold medal award for its garden at this year's RHS Chelsea Flower show.

Pupils at Viking Primary School were the proud recipients of a green oasis in the heart of their inner city school. The 'Securing Tomorrow' garden was developed in partnership with a number of children's mental health charities and designed by Royal Horticulture Society ambassador and horticulturist Jamie Butterworth.

Student Jamie first had the idea for the garden during the early stages of the pandemic. Inspired by his mother, a primary school teacher, witnessing the challenges children faced in social isolation, Jamie contacted teams at the Royal Chelsea Flower show and Place2Be charity, who provide children's mental health support in schools across the country including Viking Primary.

Credit: West London NHS Trust

Through numerous sessions, pupils at the school designed the garden with Jamie, building early prototypes with play dough.

So well received was their garden that it won the gold medal award at this year's Royal Chelsea Flower show. 

The West London child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) were invited to be part of the garden opening through work carried out by the trust's Education Wellbeing Practitioner (EWP) Crystal Fletcher at Viking Primary. As part of the early intervention approach, Crystal has worked with pupils and their parents through 1:1 guided sessions.

Credit: West London NHS Trust

Crystal said a key area of her work was to raise mental health awareness amongst staff, parents and children. Most recently in the Summer, Crystal arranged workshops with year six students in preparation for their move to high school.

She said "common talking points were worry of changes, excitement and a new network being formed. The exercises focused on body maps for the children to recognise the physical and mental symptoms." 

The West London NHS trust has been working with primary and secondary schools across Ealing and Hounslow for two years providing mental health support. 

Keyur Joshi Associate Director of CAMHS and Developmental services said "this is a guided self-help model, through early intervention and prevention the CAMHS teams are working proactively to breakdown the stigma associated with mental health".

Keyur and Crystal (Credit: West London NHS Trust)

Keyur added, eleven schools in the Borough of Ealing are covered by Place2Be and through collaborative work we can continue to raise awareness around children's mental health and the work we do in the Trust. 

"Our environment plays a significant part in how we feel and this garden will offer the children the space to reflect and reconnect with themselves and nature."

The project doesn't quite end there, going forward the children will be actively involved along with the horticulture team in the maintenance of the garden.