Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
International Journal of Social Psychiatry
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Mccorkle, B. H.
Right arrow Articles by Gagne, C.
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Mccorkle, B. H.
Right arrow Articles by Gagne, C.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

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

Brian H. Mccorkle

The Albert & Jessie Danielsen Institute, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA, mccorkle{at}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

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.

Key Words: serious mental illness • intentional friendship • befriending • social support • community integration

International Journal of Social Psychiatry, Vol. 55, No. 4, 291-305 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0020764008097090
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?