The Mental Hospital here is planning to create a park to educate and entertain its patients as part of its rehabilitation therapy program, the Taif Health Department said. The department has started searching in different areas of the city to find a good location for the proposed park, said Saeed Al-Zahrani, spokesman of the Taif Health Department. In the park, patients will be able to learn gardening and how to raise sheep, which are activities that many of the patients have shown an interest in, Al-Zahrani said. The planned park will have a theater and sports entertainment areas for table tennis, billiards, soccer, and volleyball, he said. The park will also provide vocational training for patients in tailoring, computer science, carpentry, drawing, electricity, and electronics. The 690-bed Taif Mental Hospital, the largest and one of the oldest such institutions in the Kingdom, employs 1,300 staff members and offers training programs on mental health care through its different psychiatric departments.
