After a mental health episode left John* unable to work full time and back living with his parents, he tried all sorts of medications and therapies, but it was a landscaping program that really made a difference.

“There was never any pressure, you didn’t feel like you had to work harder to compensate for your mental illness," John said.

John was part of a program that gave men with mental health conditions paid work in gardening and landscaping. Credit:James Brickwood

John, then in his 20s, was part of the MARS Landscaping Mental Health Therapy Program for seven years, until it was shut down in October. He and other participants and their families want to know why the program could not continue.

“I just don’t understand why no one bothered to see how much of a good thing it was and how many people have been helped by it,” he said.