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28
Feb 2024
The Harrogate service helping to tackle the loneliness epidemic
Four years ago, a new service was introduced in Harrogate with the aim of tackling loneliness and the debilitating mental health conditions that come with it.
It was founded by the local branch of Mind, the mental health charity, and was called the befriending service.
The purpose was to match people who may feel lonely, anxious or isolated with a friend on a regular basis for walks, a cafe visit or any other public activity.
Two years into its operation, it expanded into neighbouring Ripon, Boroughbridge, Knaresborough and Nidderdale.
“It’s the highlight of people’s week”, says Dave Rowson, befriending co-ordinator at Mind Harrogate, who sat down with the Stray Ferret to outline how it was tackling loneliness.
Dave joined the charity in May 2022, around same time that the service expanded its reach.
Dave Rowson, befriending co-ordinator at Mind Harrogate.
With skills in recruitment and project management from his time at Leeds City Council, he was tasked with expanding the service and matching volunteer befrienders with people.
Currently, he has 21 pairs who meet on a regular basis and a further 10 volunteers in the pipeline.
For Dave, part of the reason for the demand for the service is the informality of it.
Isolated and anxious
Last year, the World Health Organisation declared loneliness a “global health concern”.
North Yorkshire Council estimates that 30,000 people aged 16 or over across the county experience chronic loneliness - around six per cent of the population.
Meanwhile, an Office for National Statistics survey in 2021 found that 4.7% of adults in the Harrogate District “often or always” felt lonely.
The result is voluntary organisations such as Mind coming up with new services for people in order to help already stretched mental health services.
Dave explains that some of those who use the befriending service are often referred from local community mental health services or their GP.
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Part of the reason is to continue their recovery from conditions such as anxiety or low mood.
Others come directly to the charity to ask to use the service in order to get out and improve their mental health.
When matching people with volunteers, Mind carries out its own assessment of its participants to find out their interests, needs and what type of person they would like to be matched with.
Dave then matches them to a particular volunteer who he feels would be suitable. He supervises an initial meet between the two before organising regular appointments.
His pairs take part in activities such as coffee shop visits to dog walking.
Much of the people using the service range from those with anxiety to young people with autism.
'It means more to them than you think'
The last two years have been a lesson for Dave.
By his own admission, he had a “simplistic idea” of how the service would work for people when he joined.
The service has funding to remain in place until 2025 - however Dave hopes it can last beyond then.
Some people have been on the befriending list for a while.
For Dave, the reward comes when he manages to match one of those waiting with a new friend.
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