Cargando…

Experiences and outcomes of group volunteer befriending with patients with severe mental illness: an exploratory mixed-methods study in Colombia

BACKGROUND: Improving care for patients with severe mental illness in Latin America requires effective strategies that are low-cost. One such strategy is a volunteering scheme, referred to as befriending, which seeks to support the social integration of patients. Despite positive reports in other wo...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Botero-Rodríguez, Felipe, Hernandez, María Camila, Uribe-Restrepo, José Miguel, Cabariqe, Camilo, Fung, Catherine, Priebe, Stefan, Gómez-Restrepo, Carlos
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8103575/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33957896
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12888-021-03232-z
_version_ 1783689333510766592
author Botero-Rodríguez, Felipe
Hernandez, María Camila
Uribe-Restrepo, José Miguel
Cabariqe, Camilo
Fung, Catherine
Priebe, Stefan
Gómez-Restrepo, Carlos
author_facet Botero-Rodríguez, Felipe
Hernandez, María Camila
Uribe-Restrepo, José Miguel
Cabariqe, Camilo
Fung, Catherine
Priebe, Stefan
Gómez-Restrepo, Carlos
author_sort Botero-Rodríguez, Felipe
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Improving care for patients with severe mental illness in Latin America requires effective strategies that are low-cost. One such strategy is a volunteering scheme, referred to as befriending, which seeks to support the social integration of patients. Despite positive reports in other world regions, this intervention has not been studied in Latin America. Whilst befriending programmes commonly form patient-volunteer dyads, group arrangements may be an alternative with some benefits. Here, we aim to explore the feasibility, experiences and outcomes of a group volunteer befriending intervention for patients with severe mental illness in Colombia. METHODS: In this exploratory non-controlled study, 10 groups of five individuals were formed, each consisting of three individuals with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder and two volunteers from the community in Bogotá, Colombia. Each group was encouraged to participate together in social activities within their community over a 6-month period. Patients’ quality of life, objective social outcomes, symptom levels and internalised stigma were assessed before and after the intervention. Patients’ and volunteers’ experiences were explored in semi-structured interviews which were analysed using inductive content analysis. RESULTS: Outcomes were available for 23 patients. Whilst their objective social situation had significantly improved at the end of the intervention, other outcomes did not show statistically significant differences. The interviews with participants revealed positive experiences which fell into five categories: 1) stigma reduction; 2) personal growth; 3) formation of relationships; 4) continuity and sustainability of befriending; 5) acceptability and feasibility of befriending. CONCLUSIONS: A volunteer befriending programme in small groups of two volunteers and three patients is feasible and associated with positive experiences of participants. Such programmes may also improve the objective social situation of patients. This low-cost intervention may be useful for patients with severe mental illnesses in Latin America. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN72241383 (Date of Registration: 04/03/2019, retrospectively registered).
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8103575
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher BioMed Central
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-81035752021-05-10 Experiences and outcomes of group volunteer befriending with patients with severe mental illness: an exploratory mixed-methods study in Colombia Botero-Rodríguez, Felipe Hernandez, María Camila Uribe-Restrepo, José Miguel Cabariqe, Camilo Fung, Catherine Priebe, Stefan Gómez-Restrepo, Carlos BMC Psychiatry Research BACKGROUND: Improving care for patients with severe mental illness in Latin America requires effective strategies that are low-cost. One such strategy is a volunteering scheme, referred to as befriending, which seeks to support the social integration of patients. Despite positive reports in other world regions, this intervention has not been studied in Latin America. Whilst befriending programmes commonly form patient-volunteer dyads, group arrangements may be an alternative with some benefits. Here, we aim to explore the feasibility, experiences and outcomes of a group volunteer befriending intervention for patients with severe mental illness in Colombia. METHODS: In this exploratory non-controlled study, 10 groups of five individuals were formed, each consisting of three individuals with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder and two volunteers from the community in Bogotá, Colombia. Each group was encouraged to participate together in social activities within their community over a 6-month period. Patients’ quality of life, objective social outcomes, symptom levels and internalised stigma were assessed before and after the intervention. Patients’ and volunteers’ experiences were explored in semi-structured interviews which were analysed using inductive content analysis. RESULTS: Outcomes were available for 23 patients. Whilst their objective social situation had significantly improved at the end of the intervention, other outcomes did not show statistically significant differences. The interviews with participants revealed positive experiences which fell into five categories: 1) stigma reduction; 2) personal growth; 3) formation of relationships; 4) continuity and sustainability of befriending; 5) acceptability and feasibility of befriending. CONCLUSIONS: A volunteer befriending programme in small groups of two volunteers and three patients is feasible and associated with positive experiences of participants. Such programmes may also improve the objective social situation of patients. This low-cost intervention may be useful for patients with severe mental illnesses in Latin America. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN72241383 (Date of Registration: 04/03/2019, retrospectively registered). BioMed Central 2021-05-06 /pmc/articles/PMC8103575/ /pubmed/33957896 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12888-021-03232-z Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Botero-Rodríguez, Felipe
Hernandez, María Camila
Uribe-Restrepo, José Miguel
Cabariqe, Camilo
Fung, Catherine
Priebe, Stefan
Gómez-Restrepo, Carlos
Experiences and outcomes of group volunteer befriending with patients with severe mental illness: an exploratory mixed-methods study in Colombia
title Experiences and outcomes of group volunteer befriending with patients with severe mental illness: an exploratory mixed-methods study in Colombia
title_full Experiences and outcomes of group volunteer befriending with patients with severe mental illness: an exploratory mixed-methods study in Colombia
title_fullStr Experiences and outcomes of group volunteer befriending with patients with severe mental illness: an exploratory mixed-methods study in Colombia
title_full_unstemmed Experiences and outcomes of group volunteer befriending with patients with severe mental illness: an exploratory mixed-methods study in Colombia
title_short Experiences and outcomes of group volunteer befriending with patients with severe mental illness: an exploratory mixed-methods study in Colombia
title_sort experiences and outcomes of group volunteer befriending with patients with severe mental illness: an exploratory mixed-methods study in colombia
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8103575/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33957896
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12888-021-03232-z
work_keys_str_mv AT boterorodriguezfelipe experiencesandoutcomesofgroupvolunteerbefriendingwithpatientswithseverementalillnessanexploratorymixedmethodsstudyincolombia
AT hernandezmariacamila experiencesandoutcomesofgroupvolunteerbefriendingwithpatientswithseverementalillnessanexploratorymixedmethodsstudyincolombia
AT uriberestrepojosemiguel experiencesandoutcomesofgroupvolunteerbefriendingwithpatientswithseverementalillnessanexploratorymixedmethodsstudyincolombia
AT cabariqecamilo experiencesandoutcomesofgroupvolunteerbefriendingwithpatientswithseverementalillnessanexploratorymixedmethodsstudyincolombia
AT fungcatherine experiencesandoutcomesofgroupvolunteerbefriendingwithpatientswithseverementalillnessanexploratorymixedmethodsstudyincolombia
AT priebestefan experiencesandoutcomesofgroupvolunteerbefriendingwithpatientswithseverementalillnessanexploratorymixedmethodsstudyincolombia
AT gomezrestrepocarlos experiencesandoutcomesofgroupvolunteerbefriendingwithpatientswithseverementalillnessanexploratorymixedmethodsstudyincolombia