The pilot which concluded on Friday 3 June, consisted of 8 NC Higher Social Care students who were keen to get involved and help shape a meaningful community resource for the Inverclyde community.
The Compassionate Citizens pilot which is the first of its kind in Scotland, complements the Scottish Government’s Strategic Framework for Action on Palliative and End of Life Care and builds on ‘The Five Ways to Wellbeing’ which were developed by NEF; the UK's leading think tank promoting social, economic and environmental justice. The idea was that a bespoke community resource could be created with the expectation to roll it out into the wider Inverclyde community was a key priority for both partners involved.
Alison Bunce, Compassionate Inverclyde Lead from Ardgowan Hospice, commented, ‘The long term effect of this project was to increase the resilience and capacity of the community of Inverclyde to provide compassionate support to its members. The results have surpassed my expectations and have been extremely encouraging. The partnership model that we’ve created has been very successful and feedback has indicated that the participants were happy with the course programme and associated materials.’
The College’s January Start Social Care students worked together every Friday morning for 8 weeks and participated in a series of workshops in order to form their own Compassionate Group, with the goal that at at the end of the pilot some of the students would be willing to help carry on working with and on new caring networks in Inverclyde.
Essential Skills Lecturer Emma Maxwell commented, ‘The project provided the students with a realistic learning experience and consisted of a large amount of reflection which complemented the skills they develop at College. In addition to the pilot linking in with the students’ Working With Others unit, it also tied into their Values and Principles of Care that they studied in one of their other classes.’
During the pilot students were able to evidence a wealth of their work through completing online electronic records for their Essential Skills and also completing workbooks for the project. The students generated supplementary evidence through keeping their own gratitude journals and sharing photos of things which they had noticed during the week. They also set themselves weekly personal goals which they discussed at their following class sessions.
The project which was based on the five steps to help to improve wellbeing covered Noticing, Connecting, Giving, Education and Exercise was well received by participants.
Twenty seven year old Student Stephanie McAlpine from Inverclyde commented:
I feel I will carry on the skills I have developed in this project with me for life and they will help me in the future to see things more clearly and maintain calm and less stressed. I feel that everyone took part each week and enjoyed the experience and that everyone gained a better understanding of mindfulness, and it has helped their wellbeing
Alison added, ‘The pilot was really to test the documentation to see operationally how it ran and worked. We are pleased to report that we’ve had phenomenal feedback. Students weren’t coming along to improve their own well-being, so when they did they were surprised at their improvement.’
Emma commented, ‘This pilot has been very interesting and a really exciting opportunity for Ardgowan Hospice and our students to carry out and develop some really meaningful experiences and resources. We are looking forward to working with the Hospice in the new academic term.’
To cement the pilot’s success, two students have already offered their services as facilitators for future programmes.
Alison said, ‘We are so pleased that we’ve had commitment from the students to continue to be involved in the programme. The pilot has undoubtedly empowered and equipped the students with the skillset to consider facilitating their own groups.
This pilot really is a perfect example of how partnership working can gain impressive results. Everyone involved has been highly engaged and committed to the pilot and I’d like to thank the staff and students at the College for being so open.
The pilot which is hoped to be rolled out across the wider community in the not too distant future, will look to including groups who have experienced bereavement, loneliness and social isolation. It is hoped that the programme will continue to engage with the College as well as other external stakeholders in order to promote the programme further and build on the successful results to date.