What is it like to participate in a peer support group established to reduce loneliness and social isolation of older people? An exploration of the experiences from the perspectives of group participants and volunteer facilitators.

In 2019- 2022 The Mental Health Foundation (MHF), a third sector organisation, will deliver Standing Together Cymru (STC), a facilitated peer support group intervention established to reduce loneliness and social isolation for older (50+) people living in retirement housing sites.

There will be 30 STC groups across South East Wales. Each group will run weekly and initalliy be facilitated by two project staff members. Volunteers (referred to as peer support workers, “PSW”s) will be trained to co-facilitate groups. PSWs may be group members. When the project staff withdraw, each group will be sustained by PSWs.

The MHF has granted the research team access to members of the STC groups and to the PSWs to conduct a PhD Study. The Study is separate from the MHF’s evaluation of STC. The Study seeks to describe the experiences and motivations of taking part in STC from the perspectives of both service users and volunteer facilitators. The research team is particularly interested in the experiences of group members who volunteer to become PSWs.

Using a phenomenological design, the Study will describe the experience of taking part in a group by analysing the transcripts of one- to-one, face- to-face interviews conducted with 8 to 12 participants. The first interview will take place in the early stages of the establishment of the group, the second towards the end of the MHF facilitation and the final interview six months after completion of the MHF facilitation.