A new report published today by CSV, the UK’s leading volunteering charity, underlines how volunteering can help improve the health of people living with mental illness following two independent research studies into schemes based in London and Nottinghamshire. (Wednesday 23rd April 2008).
The evaluation reported from Nottinghamshire shows volunteering has improved mental health in more than half of those who participate while a separate study shows an average 20% improvement in the general health of participants in London’s Capital Volunteering programme over a six month period.
Today’s report (Click here to download) draws on the findings of two separate independent research studies. The Institute of Psychiatry has been evaluating the impact of Capital Volunteering while the Institute for Volunteering Research was commissioned to examine the situation at Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust.
The London Experience – Capital Volunteering:
The project’s goals include helping mental health service users to reduce their dependence on hospital-based and crisis mental health services in the future, to develop skills and confidence, and to help them become more socially included. It is funded by the Treasury, through its Invest to Save Budget (ISB) and its lead partners are CSV and the London Development Centre.
Project highlights include:
• The average rating for general health amongst volunteers surveyed over a six month period improved by a fifth.
• The Capital Volunteering model has been particularly effective in engaging black and minority ethnic service users (44% are from a BME background). This follows concerns by the Commission for Health and Social Inspection about shortfalls in the provision of mental health treatment and services for BME communities (2005).
• Capital Volunteering is helping people feel more included in society with almost a third (29%) reporting positive gains in meeting people and making friends and the same proportion reporting increased self-confidence.
Aloyse Raptopoulos experiences bi-polar affective disorder and has been admitted to a psychiatric unit several times. After one such visit she made two personal promises – to look after herself so that she didn’t have to go back to hospital; and to get a job that she found fulfilling. Through South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM) she volunteered to help others in mental distress through befriending, supporting, volunteering on music projects and escorting people to activities. This helped her return to paid work:
Aloyse says: “Volunteering contributes a great deal to satisfying my goals in life; it benefits my mental state and keeps me grounded. I have now started my own business as a self-employed trainer & consultant in mental health which keeps me very busy – I am often working 70 hours a week and over but it's all worth it! Volunteering helps me cope. It anchors me, gives me breathing space, helps me keep the balance between my favourite hobby [music] and my work.”
The Nottinghamshire Experience:
At the time of the evaluation conducted in Nottinghamshire, a third of the volunteers working within Nottinghamshire Healthcare Trust were themselves current or ex-mental health service users. Volunteers were contributing their time at 52 Trust sites, performing a wide range of important tasks including befriending, adult learning support, reflexology, hairdressing or serving in a coffee bar.
Key findings show that:
• The impact of volunteering on improved mental health is particularly marked upon service user volunteers, with 58% reporting improvements in their own mental health.
• The impact of volunteers working with people living with mental illness is dramatic, with 79% of recipients feeling positive knowing that other people care enough to give up their time to help them.
• Volunteering improves feelings of self-worth. Almost all the volunteers (90%) felt that volunteering enhanced their sense of making a useful contribution. (Additional findings in notes for editors).
Vincent Ablewhite, aged 60 and from Blidworth near Mansfield, is living with mental illness himself and volunteers with CSV at the Millbrook Mental Health Unit at Kingsmill Hospital. Vincent, a former schizophrenic, was first diagnosed with depression aged 23. He spent 10 years in the mental health unit as a patient and a further 25 years as an outpatient.
Vincent says: “Volunteering had a tremendous impact on me. It really helped pull my head together. Having the new responsibility meant that I wanted to keep mentally well so I wouldn’t let people down.
“Before I started volunteering I would wander around town between cafes grabbing anyone I could so I could talk about my problems. Now I’m giving as much as I’m taking out of society and that has really boosted my ego. I now don’t have to stumble and look at my feet when people ask me what I do. I don’t need to feel embarrassed and can say I’m a volunteer.”
Speaking about today’s report, Bill Garland, Deputy Executive Director of CSV, said: “It is clear that there are significant benefits both for service users and the NHS by investing in volunteer programmes. When volunteering opportunities are properly supported and carefully created, everybody can make a valuable contribution regardless of their background and can experience positive changes in their own lives in the process.”
Further press information: Jason Tanner / Paul Donohoe, CSV Press Office on 020 7812 0038/37 or 07941 433598.
Notes for editors:
1) CSV (Community Service Volunteers) creates opportunities for people to take an active part in the life of their communities through volunteering, training and community action. In 2006/7 229,869 people gave time as volunteers through CSV. CSV trained 12,309 people of all ages and linked 29,000 people to learning through BBC Local Radio.
2) Since the beginning of Capital Volunteering in 2005, The Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) has been evaluating the impact of Capital Volunteering. In particular, they have researched the characteristics, circumstances and health status of 150 people who joined Capital Volunteering projects between July 2005 and January 2007 and their experience of changes in health, quality of life, service use and social inclusion six month later. The IoP was established in 1948 as a postgraduate research and teaching institution devoted to those sciences key to the understanding and treatment of mental disorders. Its role in the UK is unique. In 1997 it became a school of King’s College London. www.iop.kcl.ac.uk
3) The Impact Assessment of Volunteering in the NHS project, including Nottinghamshire, is funded by the Department of Health and is intended to devise a method of evaluation that can be used by other NHS Trusts to help evaluate their volunteering programmes. The research in Nottinghamshire was conducted by the Institute for Volunteering Research
Additional findings from the Nottinghamshire evaluation shows that:
• Volunteering is appreciated by the Trust’s staff with 94% of them satisfied with the quality of services provided by volunteers
• Most Trust staff (91%) believe that having volunteers working alongside paid staff enables the Trust to provide better levels of service
• 70% of service users believe that volunteers give them a feeling of being included and not alone, helping to combat social isolation
• 73% of service users agreed that “volunteers make my experience of receiving Trust services more enjoyable”
• 74% of volunteers have developed a greater understanding of NHS working practices and procedures
• The most popular motivation for volunteering was to improve employment prospects
The London Development Centre, which backs Capital Volunteering alongside CSV is part of the Care Services Improvement Partnership (CSIP) and one of eight regional development centres in England. It aims to support service improvement of care services in London and help ensure better outcomes for children and families, adults and older people, including those with mental health needs, physical disability or learning disabilities and people in the criminal justice system. www.londondevelopmentcentre.org