IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/socpsy/v55y2009i4p291-305.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Compeer Friends: a Qualitative Study of a Volunteer Friendship Programme for People with Serious Mental Illness

Author

Listed:
  • Brian H. Mccorkle

    (The Albert & Jessie Danielsen Institute, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA, mccorkle@bu.edu)

  • Erin C. Dunn

    (Health and Human Development Programs, Education Development Center, Newton, MA, USA)

  • Yu Mui Wan

    (Massachusetts Department of Education, Malden, MA, USA)

  • Cheryl Gagne

    (Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA)

Abstract

Background: People with serious mental illness (SMI) experience numerous barriers to developing and maintaining friendships. Aims: To explore the benefits and drawbacks of an intentional friendship programme (Compeer, Inc), which develops new social relationships for people with SMI by matching them in one-to-one relationships with community volunteers for weekly social activities. Methods: Twenty clients and volunteers, in Compeer friendships for different lengths of time, participated in individual semi-structured qualitative interviews. Several volunteers were themselves current or former consumers of mental health services. Results: Participants reported numerous benefits to participating in Compeer. Clients and volunteers spoke enthusiastically about the benefits of gaining a friend. Many intentional relationships deepened over several years into mutually beneficial friendships. Most clients became more outgoing, sociable and active, with increased self-esteem, self-worth and self-confidence. Volunteers who had experienced mental illness themselves provided unique added benefits to the relationship. Drawbacks were minimal and financial and other costs to volunteers were low. Conclusions: Intentional friendships can be a potent yet cost-effective way to help people with SMI develop social skills, expand their social networks, and improve their quality of life. However, because relationships take several years to develop, quantitative evaluations using short follow-up periods may underestimate programme effectiveness.

Suggested Citation

  • Brian H. Mccorkle & Erin C. Dunn & Yu Mui Wan & Cheryl Gagne, 2009. "Compeer Friends: a Qualitative Study of a Volunteer Friendship Programme for People with Serious Mental Illness," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 55(4), pages 291-305, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:55:y:2009:i:4:p:291-305
    DOI: 10.1177/0020764008097090
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0020764008097090
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0020764008097090?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anita Bengtsson-Tops & Lars Hansson, 2001. "Quantitative and Qualitative Aspects of the Social Network in Schizophrenic Patients Living in the Community. Relationship To Sociodemographic Characteristics and Clinical Factors and Subjective Quali," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 47(3), pages 67-77, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ann Sheridan & Donal O’Keeffe & Barbara Coughlan & Kate Frazer & Johnathan Drennan & Mary Kemple, 2018. "Friendship and money: A qualitative study of service users’ experiences of participating in a supported socialisation programme," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 64(4), pages 326-334, June.
    2. Mariana Pinto da Costa & Agnes Chevalier & Aida Farreny & Megan Cassidy & Monica Leverton & Sarah Toner & Stefan Priebe, 2019. "How would patients with psychosis like to be in contact with a volunteer: Face-to-face or digitally?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(5), pages 1-13, May.
    3. Ulla Væggemose & Stina Lou & Michal Frumer & Nanna Limskov Stærk Christiansen & Jørgen Aagaard & Lisbeth Ørtenblad, 2017. "Community Families: Bridging the gap between mental health services and civil society – A qualitative study from users’ perspective," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 63(2), pages 132-138, March.
    4. Lotte Groth Jensen & Stina Lou & Jørgen Aagaard & Ulla Væggemose, 2017. "Community families: A qualitative study of families who volunteer to support persons with severe mental illness," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 63(1), pages 33-39, February.
    5. Ann J Sheridan & Jonathan Drennan & Barbara Coughlan & Donal O’Keeffe & Kate Frazer & Mary Kemple & Denise Alexander & Frances Howlin & Anne Fahy & Veronica Kow & Eadbhard O’Callaghan, 2015. "Improving social functioning and reducing social isolation and loneliness among people with enduring mental illness: Report of a randomised controlled trial of supported socialisation," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 61(3), pages 241-250, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gillian Mezey & Sarah White & Isobel Harrison & Jennifer Bousfield & Helen Killaspy & Brynmor Lloyd-Evans & Sarah Payne, 2022. "‘Modelling social exclusion in a diagnostically-mixed sample of people with severe mental illness’," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 68(2), pages 420-428, March.
    2. Elizabeth Highton-Williamson & Stefan Priebe & Domenico Giacco, 2015. "Online social networking in people with psychosis: A systematic review," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 61(1), pages 92-101, February.
    3. A. G. M. van der Plas & H. W. Hoek & D. van Hoeken & E. Valencia & A. M. van Hemert, 2012. "Perceptions of quality of life and disability in homeless persons with schizophrenia and persons with schizophrenia living in non-institutional housing," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 58(6), pages 629-634, November.
    4. Jitske F Koenders & Liselotte D de Mooij & Jack M Dekker & Martijn Kikkert, 2017. "Social inclusion and relationship satisfaction of patients with a severe mental illness," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 63(8), pages 773-781, December.
    5. Elisabeth Argentzell & Christel Leufstadius & Mona Eklund, 2014. "Social interaction among people with psychiatric disabilities – Does attending a day centre matter?," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 60(6), pages 519-527, September.
    6. Mona Eklund & Margareta Östman, 2010. "Belonging and Doing: Important Factors for Satisfaction With Sexual Relations as Perceived By People With Persistent Mental Illness," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 56(4), pages 336-347, July.
    7. Min Hwa Lee & Mi Kyung Seo, 2020. "Community Integration of Persons with Mental Disorders Compared with the General Population," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(5), pages 1-9, March.
    8. Niall Turner & Lisa Ferguson & Michele Hill & Tara Nesbitt & Eadbhard O’Callaghan & Paul O’Mahony & Mary Clarke, 2017. "An exploratory study of the extent of social inclusion among people with psychosis and psychotic-related conditions," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 63(3), pages 195-202, May.
    9. Anna-Marie Lischka & Antje Lind & Michael Linden, 2009. "The Role of the Social Network in Psychosomatic Day Care and Inpatient Care," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 55(6), pages 548-556, November.
    10. Bertil Lundberg & Lars Hansson & Elisabet Wentz & Tommy Björkman, 2008. "Stigma, Discrimination, Empowerment and Social Networks: a Preliminary Investigation of Their Influence On Subjective Quality of Life in a Swedish Sample," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 54(1), pages 47-55, January.
    11. Magliano, Lorenza & Fiorillo, Andrea & Malangone, Claudio & De Rosa, Corrado & Maj, Mario, 2006. "Social network in long-term diseases: A comparative study in relatives of persons with schizophrenia and physical illnesses versus a sample from the general population," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(6), pages 1392-1402, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:55:y:2009:i:4:p:291-305. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.