10 Years of Supported Volunteering

Ten years ago VCM and Merton MIND formed a partnership and launched The Mental Health Volunteering Project.

It was designed to help people with mental health difficulties engage through volunteering.

The project became well-known and the majority of volunteers were referred by health professionals and practitioners across the Mental Health Trust and in Primary Care Services, as well as diverse Voluntary and Public Sector, Educational and Independent agencies. Closure of day services led to sharply increased referral rates and the number of volunteers entering the Programme escalated. We began to develop opportunities specifically tailored around volunteers’ skills and needs; deliver training to organisations and deliver regular presentations to user groups, such as on wards and in day centres. We became the SVP - a comprehensive Supported Volunteering Programme for people with a wide range of disabilities including depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bi-polar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorder, eating disorders, autistic spectrum disorder, brain injury and dementia. We also began to offer a service to people in recovery from drug and alcohol use; and work with people with a history of offending behaviour where risk assessments indicate this will not conflict with duty of care to organisations.

Our philosophy . . . . .

• Celebration of diversity

• Acceptance

• Promote mental health awareness and combat stigma

• Volunteering in the open community, avoiding sheltered projects

• Meaningful time as opposed to time-limited training

• Encourage employment skills

• Referral to relevant support agencies

• Value volunteering for its own sake - personal benefits

• Develop at your own pace: explore/ encourage/ no compulsion

• Encourage links between volunteers: support groups and events

• Encourage user-led initiatives

• Open door - many of our volunteers return at different stages of their lives

We developed partnerships to work with major initiatives:

• Equal Project – ‘Ways to Work’ 2004-5: supporting volunteers to acquire work-related skills and delivering training and job clubs; ACE Volunteer Mentoring Project 2008-10: in partnership with South West London & St. George’s Mental Health Trust – volunteer mentoring for socially excluded people; Imagine Mainstream - regular referral and joint support system for Trust service users, incorporating planning and reviews; Sport England – involving volunteers in sport and developing opportunities in leisure centres and the Sporting Chance Project, in partnership with SWLSTG MH Trust and Fulham Football Club – for people using the Trust’s services, to play football, netball, basketball and tennis.

October 2009 sees the Programme celebrate its 10th anniversary as the comprehensive and versatile programme that it is today. It remains responsive to changing needs by keeping abreast of developments in law, national and local policy, and contributing to mental health strategy and provision, as well as participating in, and delivering ongoing training in contemporary theory, practice and service delivery in mental health. Above all, the Programme remains faithful to its original ideals. We continue to place the individual volunteers’ experiences at the centre of our planning and delivery. Well over 100 volunteers seek our support every year. Our volunteers contribute an enormous range of skills and commitment to Merton’s voluntary & public sector agencies, in roles as diverse as weeding to web design! Our new Outcomes Measurement design will help volunteers to build a picture of their own development in the form of a Personal Assessment. We are continually looking at new ways of serving our users, such as developing new peer group recruitment sessions and ‘Prepare to Volunteer’ training to combat waiting times and encourage networking for volunteers. Our programme is fully consistent with the Recovery approach to mental health service delivery and a majority of volunteers consult us as part of their Care Plan.

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank our funders, the London Borough of Merton and the Merton & Sutton Primary Care Trust. Thank you also to all the Voluntary Sector organisations who have engaged with us in offering high quality good practice in relation to SVP volunteers; to the practitioners who refer to us; to Sheila Knight and Geoff Parsons from Merton MIND and Laura Johnson from Rethink for your support and encouragement. A huge thank you to the volunteers who give so freely of their time to support me in delivering the SVP: especially to Philip for your commitment, to Jenny and to Cath, to Manoj and to Sharon. Finally, thank you to Imagine Mainstream, in particular Margaret Whittle for your partnership working over the past 3 years. We salute the courage and determination of so many volunteers in tackling new opportunities. We look forward to continuing to serve the community in Merton, and to providing a relevant and responsive service to mental health service users in the decade ahead!