course around meâ Participant of Creating Connections project ... of the Creating Connections programme, ...... closed
Creating Connections An evaluation of peer-led self-management training for single parents
Contents
1. Introduction
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2. Summary of Findings and Discussion
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3. What is self-management?
10
4. Single parents and mental health
12
5. Policy Context
14
6. Creating Connections Project
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7. Outcomes evaluation
31
8. Outcome Evaluation Findings
36
9. Discussion
54
10. Conclusions and Recommendations
58
11. References
61
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“Most definitely carry out the course, it’s the best thing I did, it’s changed things big time for me and others in the course around me” Participant of Creating Connections project Participant of Creating Connections project
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Rosie struggled to leave the house without the support of her daughter or friend.
weight and enjoys evenings out with mates. (All participants’ names have been changed in this report).
She was too anxious to use public transport so came to the Creating Connections course in a taxi with her friend who was also a single parent. During the second week she explained how she felt her family were bullying and harassing her with texts and phone calls. One of the single parents showed her how to block the texts and calls on her mobile. The following week Rosie was smiling and excited as she told the group that she had ‘had one of the best weeks ever’. Blocking her calls had given her peace and reduced her feelings of anxiety so much that she had ‘walked around the corner on my own to visit a friend for the first time in four years’.
This development in Rosie’s circumstances is very much down to her hard work and commitment to wanting to make her life better. However, the opportunity to share her experiences with her peers, to be supported without being judged, to be given real practical solutions to the problems and challenges she faced has enabled her to begin that journey towards making improvements in her life. Rosie’s story is just one of 206 that could be told by single parents who attended the Creating Connections programme in Cardiff and Newport between September 2014 and July 2016.
Over a year on and Rosie goes to the gym and swimming on her own, has lost
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1. Introduction
1.1 Creating Connections was funded by the Big Lottery Cymru and delivered by the Mental Health Foundation in partnership with Gingerbread, the single parent charity. It used self-management and peer support approaches to develop skills, provide tools and build support networks that enable single parents to keep control over aspects of their lives and maintain their health and wellbeing. Section 2 summarises the findings and discussion from the outcomes evaluation of the Creating Connections programme, whilst Sections 7 to 9 give the detail of the outcomes evaluation that took place over two and a half years of the project.
The strategy is underpinned by legislation ‘Mental Health (Wales) Measure (2010) and supported by a Delivery Plan (2016-2019) “In this strategy we are broadening our approach to ensure that more people have good mental health and are flourishing, fewer suffer poor mental health and those with mental illness are able to live fuller lives. To do this we need to promote positive mental health and ensure that individuals are supported to do so” ‘Together for Mental Health’ 2012 p18 1.4 Creating Connections was coproduced with single parents who have been involved at all stages of design, development and delivery. Section 6 details the process and outputs of the programme including the challenges and achievements, as well as unexpected learning.
1.2 Section 3 explains self-management and the Mental Health Foundation’s approach in this programme, especially how peer support adds value to what is essentially an individual’s journey of selfdiscovery and achievement and Section 4 discusses how the challenges of being a single parent can impact on mental wellbeing, using research information to argue the case for providing community based interventions that can help single parents meet those challenges and prevent deterioration of their mental health and wellbeing.
1.5 In Section 10 the report makes its conclusions and recommendations. It sets out several developments that have already been initiated as a result of the project, and further hopes for the future.
1.3 Section 5 links self-management and peer support as an approach for improving health and wellbeing to Welsh Government policy and legislation. ‘Together for Mental Health’ (2012) sets out the Welsh Government strategy for mental health and wellbeing to 2019.
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2. Summary of Findings and Discussion
2.1 The Creating Connections programme was focused around three overall outcomes;
2.4 The vast majority of single parents that responded at baseline were women (97%) whilst only 3% were men. The average age of the single parents that took part in the evaluation was 34 years (the youngest was 18 years and the eldest was 66 years). Most of the respondents disclosed their ethnicity as Welsh (60%) and 90% were unemployed. Only 7% of respondents reported a physical disability whilst 32% self-reported that they had direct experience of mental illhealth.
That single parents would: • S how improved wellbeing, increased confidence and self-esteem and would feel better able to meet the challenges they face in their lives. • C an make their own individual goal choices and develop the skills and tools needed to achieve their goals.
2.5 Outcome 1: Single parents who took part in the evaluation were asked to complete the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS)1 at the start of the course and 6 months after completing the course. The mean score showed a statistically significant increase in the measure of wellbeing from baseline to 6 months post-training (42(95%CI:40-45)-48(95%CI:45-51)) on the WEMWBS scale; Z=-2.961, p
