Health / Sponsored Feature
Team Bristol seeks volunteers
We hear a lot about loneliness these days and how it can affect our health, particularly as we get older. Despite high profile campaigns many people, young and old, are feeling lonely in Bristol at this very minute. It may be to do with a lack of confidence, lack of mobility or the loss of a loved one, whatever the reason, you can bet that someone very near you is feeling lonely right now.
So what can be done about it? People don’t generally advertise the fact that they are lonely, but there are some warning signs. As neighbours we can look out for each other and particularly those who are on their own – this need be no more than a friendly “hello, how are you” or an offer of help along the lines of “I’m off to the shops is there anything I can get for you?”
Research has shown that there are some life events that can lead to a person becoming separated from friends and family – loss of a job, restricted mobility, long-term ill health and, of course, bereavement.
It is this last major life event, bereavement, that has led to a few people getting together to set up a new type of service – where people help other people who have recently lost their spouse or partner to reconnect with their friends and community. The Cities of Service programme (Team Bristol), in partnership with CRUSE Bereavement Care, has just launched a new service which will compliment CRUSE’s existing services by providing a ‘friend’ for recently bereaved older people.
This is commonly referred to a ‘befriending’ and the job of a befriender is to spend time with the person who has suffered the loss on their terms – helping them decide what they would like to do. Recent research into the effectiveness of befriending has found that it is most effective when the older person feels in control and, perhaps even more interestingly, when the befriending also involves an activity such as going to the pub or joining a club, watching a film or a football match – even going shopping! There are already quite a few befriending services operating across Bristol, using volunteers who receive appropriate training for their role, and the time commitment from volunteers is usually one to two hours per week, for a minimum of six months.
Cities of Service and CRUSE are currently recruiting volunteers to become ‘befrienders’ and support older people in the community, to find out more about this please click here, or email the Team Bristol at volunteer@bristol.gov.uk.
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