Key features of Upstream - About-Us - Upstream

Key Features of Upstream

Identifying people who might use the service through GPs, multi-disciplinary teams, adult and community services, local organisations, friends, family, self-referral.

Visiting people who are identified to discuss their needs and interests, and to discover any particular barriers they experience to information and involvement.

Engaging people’s interest in joining community activities to meet their needs and wishes; to involve them in healthier lifestyles; to engage them in stimulating creative, social and learning activities; to enable them to have access to information; or to ensure that people who are housebound and their carers have equal access to these opportunities. Mentors suggest options individually tailored to people’s requirements.

Encouraging people to sustain interest, activities and independence, so that participants can continue activities independently in the community, in their own groups or at home. Sustainability is crucial to the success of the service. From the beginning, mentors nurture enthusiasm and commitment to help people plan how to keep going after initial mentoring. Mentors reduce support as people become more confident and self-motivated. Some people may require support at various times during their lives.

Involving local communities in helping to encourage and support activities and groups. Mentors contact individual ‘champions’ and organisations, find existing activities to interest participants, and encourage local groups to be inclusive, accessible and stimulating. For every one participant, often as many as 5-10 other people become directly involved through helping identification, transport, venues, activities. This creates a positive context for long-term success and the benefit of many more people.

Monitoring, evaluating reporting. It is vital that the original Peninsula Medical School evaluation of the mentoring service is built on with further evidence from the service as it expands into other areas, in order to demonstrate best value.

Maintaining strategic partnerships between the statutory services (e.g. Devon Primary Care Trust, Devon County Council Adult and Community Services, Devon Partnership Trust, City and District Councils) and the Voluntary sector (e.g. Council for Voluntary Services and local voluntary sector organisations), both at senior manager and front line staff levels. The mentors act as brokers to bring together different service personnel around a common purpose, the best interests of the individual.

The Healthy Living Community is a focus for voluntary sector organisations concerned with health and social care to co-operate for the benefit of the community.

The General Practitioners and their teams, in regular communication with the mentors, play a crucial part in the seamless provision of health and well-being services in the broadest sense.

Social development and community regeneration are powerful factors that equally underlie the aims of the mentoring service as much as the quality of life, health and well-being of the individual.