Community Mentoring
What is Community Mentoring?
What is it?
Community Mentoring is a personally tailored, goal oriented service (in this case for people aged 50 and over*) aimed at tackling the social isolation, and consequent exclusion which frequently follow on common events in later life, such as bereavement, illness or disability.
* It is believed that mentoring may have applications for other isolated and excluded adults; the focus of this paper is isolated and excluded adults aged over 50.
Social isolation is defined as:
- A state of mind, characterised by feelings of loneliness, depressed mood and low self-esteem, as well as dissatisfaction with the social situation and a perceived lack of friendship and meaningful interactions with others. This is often associated with a lack of confidence about engaging in new social activities or interacting socially, which is a common and strong barrier to re-engagement.
- A set of behaviours characterised by low levels of social interaction. This may be to a greater or lesser degree caused by physical (e.g. disability, illness) psychological (e.g. low self-esteem) or environmental constraints (e.g. housing, access to activities, fear of crime).
- Low levels of social support in terms of material support (e.g. money transport), informational support and emotional support.
Many people have health and well-being needs in this area that are difficult to identify and not readily met by traditional interventions. The aim of mentoring is to prevent people from falling into critical need, to enable them to take greater care of their own health and to maintain their long-term health in the community.
Some people who experience these things find it difficult to find the right kind of help, and can turn inappropriately to familiar sources of other support, for example their GP’s or other local NHS staff for reassurance.
Mentors work in a range of ways to enable older people to improve their independence and enjoyment of life by:
- Enabling them to make use of ordinary community facilities and networks to meet their needs, and/or
- Building small interest or friendship groups which become self sustaining of require only minimal encouragement, and/or
- When these approaches are insufficient, enabling them to design their own service responses, in groups or alone, to tackle their needs in ways which suit them.
Mentoring:
- is a powerful tool in modernising public services because it puts older people in the driving seat of shaping their services;
- it also assists access to information and services by people who do not usually use the ordinary routes to these, perhaps because of a lack of confidence or knowledge;
- by drawing on community facilities and creating self sustaining friendship networks mentoring encourages independence in supportive communities.
The objectives of community mentoring
To re-engage people in personally meaningful social activities (i.e. activities which are personally meaningful and enjoyable to the individual). If social interactions are not personally meaningful, they are unlikely to address the psychological impact of social isolation
To help users of the service to develop the tools, knowledge and experience which will allow them to confidently engage in and self-determine their own chosen social activities in the future.
The intended outcomes of community mentoring
I. Improved mental and physical well being
Indicators:
- reduced depression,
- improved physical activity,
- improved feelings of self worth, confidence, self esteem,
- also satisfactory home conditions to support health – e.g warmth
II. Improved quality of life
Indicators:
- increase in social contacts,
- improved uptake of ordinary community facilities
- reduced burden of care to informal (unpaid) a carers
III. Making a positive contribution
Indicators:
- positive sense of social identity
- sense of contribution to groups
- feeling valued and belonging
IV. Choice and Control
Indicators:
- sense of control of life
- choice and control of activities
- facilitated input to local consultations, particularly in relation to health and social care, in a conversational style integrated with the service as a whole.
V. Freedom from discrimination
Equal access to the service and facilitation of equal access to goods and services:
- for people from minority communities,
- for men and women,
- people of all ages over 50,
VI. Economic well-being
Indicator:
- improved financial security, especially benefit take up [in association with other services]
VII. Personal dignity
Indicators:
- increased coping skills
- increased feelings of competence
- increased independence
- reduction in inappropriate usage of public services [e.g. emergency hospital admission, GP over-use] and increase in appropriate usage of community facilities and public services
Desirable outcomes
(from inter-generational work)
- Increased sense of community safety
- Reduction in fears for safety, including in relation to young people.
