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What is the research about?
The research is a joint project between the Universities of Manchester and Bristol, funded by the Department of Health through the NIHR School for Primary Care Research. The research team recently conducted a systematic literature review and found that befriending has a small but significant effect on depression, reducing symptoms in a variety of populations.

They now want to talk to people with direct experience of befriending to help them better understand how it affects various aspects of clients’ wellbeing (not just depression), whether it works differently for different people, and how best it can be delivered. Ultimately they hope to develop a form of befriending that works for patients in general practice. They have already worked successfully with projects providing befriending for elderly people, and would now like to explore befriending for other client groups.

What kind of befriending projects are needed?

1. The researchers want to contact projects working with any of the following client groups:

• adults with diagnosed mental health problems (including depression)
• new mothers
• patients with cancer
• people who care for a family member with a physical or mental health problem (including carers of people with dementia)
• people with a long-term physical health problem or disability
• people who have experienced a bereavement
• socially excluded groups (e.g. Black and minority ethnic groups, asylum seekers, people who are homeless)

2. The researchers are interested in projects that primarily focus on providing emotional support (rather than, for example, practical help, counselling or information).

3. The researchers are keen to hear from projects providing individual face-to-face befriending, but would also like to include examples of group, telephone or internet befriending schemes.

4. The researchers are interested in projects around the UK that work in community settings and are run by Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) or local government organisations, rather than the NHS.

What involvement is required from you?
The researchers will need your help to identify a small number of people within your project who might agree to be interviewed about the value of befriending. This may include:
- Befriendees who have used the service recently (in the last 12 months)
- Befrienders
- The manager of the befriending scheme

Expenses and payment
Interviewers will travel to wherever individuals are based and arrange to talk in locations they feel most comfortable in. Interviews will last for about an hour and are confidential. Interviewees will be paid an honorarium of £20 for their time. Also, reasonable travel costs will be reimbursed along with any costs incurred by befriending projects in the course of assisting with recruitment of research participants (e.g., to cover staff time, telephone calls, postage or printing).

You’re interested? What to do next
Please contact the study co-ordinator Dr Nicki Mead at your earliest convenience for further information and to discuss whether your organisation is able to help with the research. You can contact Nicki on  0161 275 7613  or email nicki.mead@manchester.ac.uk

Alternatively, contact Jeanette Boyd at MBF on 0161 787 3842 or at jeanette.boyd@mandbf.org.uk if you have an initial enquiry.

Read about MBF regional befriending events 2008-2009