Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the potential benefits to mental health patients of treatments offered by Care Farms.

There has not been any assessment specifically of the benefits of care farms for people with mental health illness.

However, there is much evidence on the benefit of taking part in nature-based activities and animal-assisted therapy which is known to significantly reduce stress, anxiety, depression and generally improve well-being in people with a range of mental health problems and other conditions such as dementia.