‘Greencare’ is a group (provided by Growing Better Lives) for people with a diagnoses of personality disorder or similar. As part of the development of a new twelve-week evaluation project different ideas were shared with service users as to which type of scale could be used to assess their experience of that day’s Greencare.  

 The group rejected ideas of number based Likert-scales and wanted an image based scale that reflected the horticultural aspects of Greencare. 

Photographs of 54 differing plant species (balanced for colour, structure, size) were shown to the Greencare group and each image was discussed as to the emotional response it provoked. Through a series of comparisons and the removal of images eliciting disparate responses a proposed scale of 10 different ‘emotional days’ was offered to the group with choices of image for each. A final scale of 10 images was agreed and used as part of the Evaluation Journal and weekly at the check-out (community meeting at the end of the day).

Outcomes include a greater depth of reflection on the day in check-out, and a permanent image for service users to track their Greencare journey. Cline comments include: “It’s hard to put a number to what you’re feeling but it’s much easier to put a picture to it” and “Nicer to use than words”; “Much less clinical”; “More heartfelt”.

For more information about this project, please contact Vanessa Jones:

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Tel: 07899793461