VA FARMS Seeds Hope Through Alternative Therapy

Seeing your time and sweat turn into plants, vegetables, flowers and fruits, and working closely with the earth is therapeutic, say Whole Health therapists at VA FARMS in Vancouver, Washington.

“These plants are our tools,” says Mandi Atkinson, Coordinator for Therapeutic Horticulture at the VA Vancouver campus.

Veterans Affairs Farming and Recovery Mental Health Services, or VA FARMS, is doing this very thing with local Veterans at their sprawling quarter acre parcel at the VA Portland Health Care System’s Vancouver campus.

Atkinson has spent the past 20 years working in horticulture, and the last decade using plants and nature as therapy.

“The diversity of our plans and flowers allows us to engage with different patients,” Atkinson adds.

Indeed, the patient population of VA Portland Health Care System is as diverse as the plants under Atkinson’s care. Some face drug addiction, a plethora of health problems, PTSD, and most notably, homelessness, complicated by other issues.

“We average 20 or so people per week,” Atkinson said.

The VA FARMS plot in Vancouver, Wash., is located on the southwest corner of the sprawling campus sandwiched between Clark College, Fort Vancouver and Fourth Plan Blvd. It beams with different vegetables, fruit trees, shrubs, flowers and plants native to the Pacific Northwest, and even features a red barn and spacious greenhouse.

Started in 2018 as a “Healing Garden” at the Portland VA campus by groundskeeper Scott Hoffman, clinical staff quickly realized the therapeutic potential of involving Veterans in the care and nurturing of plants and gardening in general. An application for a grant was soon submitted, and the concept for a VA FARMS for the VA Portland Health Care System quickly took root, and soon turned into a reality.

Indeed, Portland was one of ten original test sites for the pilot program, initiated in July 2018. Supported by a Congressional initiation through the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Office of Rural Health, the program quickly grew both in size and scope to include horticultural education, and has since expanded to include other groundbreaking programs, such as the “Seed to Plate” program, which encourages Veterans to cultivate crops through germination, growth and harvest, with the goal of sharing fruits and vegetables with the community through local farmer’s markets.

Brenda Taylor, a VA Portland’s Recreational Therapist who joined VAPORHCS in 2008, says the VA FARMS concept is just one of many programs put in place to help Veterans along their pathway to recovery. Other programs which fall under the Whole Health service division include Veteran Art, which allows patients to paint or sketch as a mode of therapy, Mindfulness Classes, Whole Health coaching, Well-Being Classes, and Taking Charge of One’s Life.

As one walks around the VA FARMS amidst the different types of grapes, a native Northwest garden, raised beds full of over-winter crops being readied for the spring planting season, and a pollinator garden with a few flowers being browsed by bees and butterflies, one cannot help but being struck with the serenity of the place. Atkinson couldn’t agree more.

“This is a safe, special community space,” she says.

If you would like to be involved in the VA FARMS horticultural therapy program, or any of the other therapeutic programs within Whole Health, send an email to VHAPOR-FARMS@va.gov, or call 503-220-8262, ext. 53098. Or visit on the web at: https://www.va.gov/portland-health-care/programs/whole-health/whole-health-va-farms/.

VA Portland's VA FARMS program was also featured in a recent KGW News Channel 8 report. To see the video and read their story, go to https://www.kgw.com/article/features/veterans-therapeutic-gardens-vancouver/283-01a25225-5019-4e73-8479-0b3553cbb1a6.