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The purpose of mentoring is to help the older person to access services and activities which match their individual needs and to help the individual develop a positive sense of social identity and self-esteem. This would be characterised by positive feelings of belonging to a group or community, feeling worthwhile /competent and of being valued and respected by others.

Community mentors’ roles may be fulfilled in different ways; the role described below is not a job description. Mentoring organisations are free to decide that parts of the role are more effectively and efficiently carried out in combination with a coordinator’s role, or by an assistant. All components of the role described are considered to be appropriate to paid staff positions.

Mentors seek to:

(i)maintain life time interests where these have been abandoned unwillingly or the older person feels that there is an insuperable barrier to continuing;

(ii)facilitate people in achieving lifetime ambitions to do new things;

(iii)interest people in new things where they do not as yet feel an interest and cannot decide what they would enjoy doing.

It is recognised that Community Mentors may use a range of methods to complete the assessment, goal planning and action planning stages, and these may include group-based activities, accepting that these may have a therapeutic value in themselves and can only be based on referral information.

Volunteers can be an asset in complementing the role of the paid staff mentors for not-for-profit organisations.

The role of the mentor is:

• To conduct a rigorous assessment of the needs and potential interests of each individual. This builds on and complements assessment material conveyed during the referral process.
• To agree goals and an action plan with each person
• To address the need by tailoring a response to the needs (and current abilities) of the individual as closely as possible through (in order):

(i)signposting to services provided by others (if the individual has high confidence and ability and willingness to engage)

(ii)introducing the individual to existing ordinary community facilities where these exist and are appropriate

(iii)where necessary, establishing friendship or social groups where possible on the basis of shared interests, and as close to individuals’ own homes as possible.

(iv)In cases where self-esteem and /or confidence are low, to facilitate and support the building of confidence and social interaction skills. This will require considerable input and facilitation of activities from the mentor (e.g. co-attendance, help arranging transport, emotional support and encouragement).

(v)In rare cases where there is no realistic prospect of the person being able, within a reasonable timescale, to go out and enjoy social activities, to agree goals that can be met at home; in these cases mentors always seek other ways for the individual to connect with their community.

• The mentor should develop a time limited, task oriented relationship with the older person with ongoing assessment and feedback /adjustment of intervention as needed. Ultimately, the aim is for the person to be able to manage independently and so mentoring input needs to be designed to be temporary, (with a view to withdraw at an appropriate time), albeit that the amount of input needed will vary depending on individual needs.
• Where people need ongoing support to access activities /services, this should be referred back to the provider organisation who will negotiate with other providers /carers.
• Mentors look out for and are able to recognise clinically significant psychological problems (especially depression and anxiety). They make appropriate referrals if these are at a level which requires professional intervention.
• In the course of this work, mentors: provide opportunities to service users to discuss ways to promote their own health and well being; facilitate informal conversation style input to local consultations, particularly around health and social care issues.
• Mentors are trained to act to comply with other statutory requirements including Health and Safety, Child and Adult Protection and the Data Protection Act.

The aim of mentors is to enable older people to become self sustaining in their activities and then withdraw. Mentors ensure that a “feedback loop” appropriate to the individual is defined and in place before withdrawal so that any drop off in activity is picked up on and investigated.

Mentors may also use cross-generational work to enable older people and young people to become comfortable and friendly with each other to develop mutual respect and improve feelings of community safety.

Community Mentors are not:

• Befrienders
• Advocates
• Community development workers
• Tied to one kind of intervention – for example artwork, physical fitness work.
• Health trainers
• Counsellors
• Caseworkers on behalf of any single member of the MDT.
• A stand alone service – Mentors work with and depend on the whole range of community services and facilities.

Although in their daily work they may appear to befriend to achieve their objectives, may advocate on behalf of someone with who they are working or provide short term informal counselling under supervision, give advice on healthy living, and help develop social capital in the community.

The main kinds of groups that Community Mentors establish:

(i)Neighbourhood or village based groups, designed to promote healthy social networks and encourage the community to develop the capacity to support more vulnerable members

(ii)Interest-focussed groups, based on activities that the older people choose and enjoy, and which may provide them with the experience of learning something new (and learning that they can still learn).

(iii)Task focussed or specialist groups, for example fixed term anxiety management groups, or men’s groups (men have a disproportionate fall out from most older people’s activities and require particular attention of they are to receive equal treatment).

In the case of specialist groups such as anxiety management groups, the aim may be to enable people to “graduate” to other more open activities.

In all other cases the aim will be to make the group self sustaining, albeit that the mentoring organisation will assist groups to ensure that they can remain viable and self sustaining.

A note on creative activity

A wide range of activities needs to be available dependent on interests of potential service users. There has been evaluated experience of mentoring (in Upstream) where the efficacy of creative activity has been examined. Te following advice is from the Peninsula Medical School

“This type of activity is appealing to a broad range of people (albeit not everyone), and is very amenable to individual tailoring across a wide spectrum of ability and personal interest. There are opportunities to explore and express feelings, opportunities are created for mutual praise (around the created output), it engages higher level cognitive functioning, provides opportunities for additional at-home activity which contributes to the ongoing social interaction, and it creates opportunities for self-praise and for building self-efficacy in a step-wise way.”

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