What is ‘care farming’?
Care farming, or ‘social farming’ is a type of green care intervention and has been defined as the use of commercial farming and agricultural landscapes to promote mental and physical health through normal farming activity. Care farming is active across much of Western Europe. There are currently around 230 care farms in the UK providing health, social, and educational care services for a wide range of client groups including people with mental ill health, learning disabilities, autism, and dementia. Although care farming is an overtly practical approach, various theories suggest a sophisticated and subtle web of social, mental, and physical interactions providing a potentially potent complex intervention. For more information on care farming, here is a link to a study completed by Helen Elsey, Lecturer in Public Health, Jenni Murray, Senior Research Fellow, and Rachel Braggy, Deputy Director in 2016.
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