Psychological Support Service

Lead service provider/commissioner

Name:

Age UK Warwickshire

Type of knowledge

Type of knowledge:

Project evaluation

Type of evaluation:

Outcome evaluation

Prevention service description

Funded by Warwickshire County Council, STR is staffed by trained volunteers who work with the older people for 12 x 1 hour sessions over 15 weeks, to help them to identify their personal goals for what they want to achieve, and what steps they might take to improve their quality of life, become more independent, improve self management skills and generally feel better about themselves. Although this can often relate to social isolation and loneliness, older adults enrolled in the service are not referred based solely on this criteria and cannot self-refer. Referrals are accepted from GPs, Community Mental Health team and other mental health service providers.

Regular reviews and on-going monitoring are carried out, to identify any changes in client needs. These clients can then transition to different parts of the Psychological Support Service, for example counselling or CBT, with little delay. Similarly clients who have had their maximum number of sessions and made improvements, but who are not ready for discharge, can be provided with lower intensity services. In 2014/15, 10 STR team members provided over 260 hours of support to clients and there were 37 new referrals to the Counselling Service.

Intervention/service type:

Befriending, mentoring and peer support; Information and advice; Carers support; Self-care

Target client group(s):

Older people; Carers