SynthesisBMC psychiatry2018
Characteristics, motivations and experiences of volunteer befrienders for people with mental illness: a systematic review and narrative synthesis.
Synthesis in BMC psychiatry, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed.
- The effectiveness of volunteer befriending for improving the quality of life of patients with schizophrenia in Bosnia and Herzegovina - an exploratory randomised controlled trial.Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences · 2021Trial
- Experiences and outcomes of group volunteer befriending with patients with severe mental illness: an exploratory mixed-methods study in Colombia.BMC psychiatry · 2021Trial
- Effectiveness of a volunteer befriending programme for patients with schizophrenia: randomised controlled trial.The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science · 2020Trial
- Article
- Volunteering across contexts: comparing attitudes toward volunteering with prisoners and people with mental illness.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Views on volunteering in mental health: a focus group study with mental health professionals and volunteers in Portugal.Discover mental health · 2023Article
- The effectiveness of an additive informal social network intervention for forensic psychiatric outpatients: results of a randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- An Intervention to Connect Patients With Psychosis and Volunteers via Smartphone (the Phone Pal): Development Study.JMIR formative research · 2022Article
- Can volunteer medical visit companions support older adults in the United States?BMC geriatrics · 2021Article
- How do befriending interventions alleviate loneliness and social isolation among older people? A realist evaluation study.PloS one · 2021Article
- Patient and befriender experiences of participating in a befriending programme for adults with psychosis: a qualitative study.BMC psychiatry · 2020Article
- Article
- How would patients with psychosis like to be in contact with a volunteer: Face-to-face or digitally?PloS one · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe literature suggests that many people in the general population tend to distance themselves from those with mental illness. However, there are volunteers that behave differently, spending their free time with people with mental illness and providing direct input in the form of befriending. Whilst there are a range of befriending programmes, little is known about who these volunteer befrienders are, and a previous review of different forms of volunteering in mental health care found data on only 63 befrienders.
methodsWe conducted a systematic electronic search of databases (BNI, CNIL, EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Cochrane Registers, Web of Science) to detect all papers reporting characteristics of befriending volunteers in mental health care published between 2011 and April 2018. The articles retrieved were combined with previous papers identified in an earlier review and with relevant papers identified by experts in the field. The articles that met the inclusion criteria were extracted and narratively synthesised.
resultsNine studies met the inclusion criteria for this review, reporting characteristics of a total of 577 volunteer befrienders. The most often reported characteristics were age and gender, motivations to volunteer and experience of the role. Whilst characteristics vary greatly, most volunteers are female, and the average age is 50 years. Motivations generally fit into the categories of "giving" and "getting" and experiences are mixed.
conclusionPublished research on volunteer befrienders has increased in the last eight years, but is still limited. The range of characteristics suggests that there is a potential for encouraging a variety of people to volunteer as befrienders for people with mental illness. Understanding the characteristics and motivations of volunteers may help refine programmes and improve the experience of the volunteer befrienders.
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