Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust was awarded the money by the King’s Fund as part of their Enhancing the Healing Environment programme. The team at Mandalay House identified with service users that a covered seethrough structure in the garden would provide much needed additional social, recreational and therapeutic space with the added bonus that it could be used all year round.

The design for the outdoor structure was produced in consultation with patients and included a moving water feature to create a relaxing environment, options for lighting, provision of seating areas and low upkeep planting which patients can help to maintain.

At the end of August Sarah Waller, programme Director for the King’s Fund and Hedley Finn a design consultant for the programme met with the project team at Mandalay House and presented a plaque to David Stalker, the project lead for the Trust. They spent time in the garden and the new domelike structure, talking to the team about how it was designed and built.

Sarah Waller said: ‘The lack of social space was obvious here, especially after talking to service users. I am delighted to see the end result as a definite achievement in creating a relaxing and therapeutic environment for people who use services.’