Upscaling therapeutic community gardening as a green social prescription for the treatment of mental ill-health

The project

The proposed interdisciplinary PhD will explore strategies for upscaling therapeutic community gardening as a green social prescription for the treatment of mental ill-health in the UK.

The key aims of the studentship will be to:

• Identify the current UK provision of therapeutic community gardening as a green social prescription for the treatment of mental ill-health.
• Summarise the existing evidence-base regarding the health benefits of therapeutic community gardening for individuals with mental ill-health, and the barriers to referral, uptake, and attendance.
• Develop and implement strategies to overcome the barriers to referral, uptake, and attendance at therapeutic community gardens.

Funding

The award consists of full Home tuition fees  (further fee details), and an annual doctoral stipend of £16,062, for a maximum of 36 months.

PhD students also receive a £2,500 training bursary via Proficio funding, which may be used to cover the cost of advanced skills training including conference attendance and travel.

Criteria

To apply for this studentship, it is essential that you match the following criteria;

• An undergraduate science degree 2:1 or above
• Experience of research design
• Experience of qualitative and/or quantitative statistical analysis.

How to apply

You can apply for this postgraduate research opportunity online.

Applications MUST include the following documents to be uploaded:

• Research proposal of no more than 600 words, outlining suggested research focus(es), approach(es) and/or studies that applicants would be interested to include within their PhD.
• CV 
• Covering letter
• Transcripts of any undergraduate or masters programmes. 

Instruction to applicants

When you apply online you will be prompted to fill out several boxes in the form:

• For "Course title" please put "PhD Health and Physical Activity"
• For "Proposed research topic or area of research" please put the title of this studentship (Validating a simple measure for assessing the health of an individual’s gait)
• For "If you have contacted a potential supervisor..." please put the name of the lead supervisor (Dr Carly Wood)

If you have any informal queries about this opportunity please email the lead supervisor, Dr Carly Wood (cjwood@essex.ac.uk).

You can find the terms and conditions of this studentship here (PDF).