What the professionals say - Achievements - Upstream

What the professionals say

• ‘I think the mentors have been very good … they spend a lot of time trying to find out what would motivate the individual and trying to accommodate that. I do believe that (mentoring) is a useful thing and I’m sure the patients benefit from it without any doubt at all.’
  
• ‘One lady said, “I never go out except to the shops because all my friends are dead, my husband’s dead, I don’t have any children.” I got Upstream involved … she goes to the art group or local history group … she’s made friends and she’s a new woman. She’s not depressed and withdrawn as she was. She’s got confidence and I think that’s terrific. She’s got a brighter step. It’s opened up new horizons for her and made her life better.’
• ‘It gives them something to think about… It’s totally transformed their lives.’
• ‘In terms of things like blood pressure and heart disease and all those ageing conditions, it’s not going to make a huge influence, but it’s the mental state that’s important. If you are happy in yourself then everything else is incidental. You can cope. Very often in elderly people if you give them anti-depressants it’s not the answer and they can cause confusion and drowsiness and falls and things like that. Because communities and families have broken down, elderly people do need these structured interventions to get them together because they don’t have confidence.’
• ‘One chap who had a very difficult bereavement had quite a lot of support but was really struggling. We referred him to Upstream and he got on well with one of the mentors. He would say without a doubt that is the one thing that put him back on the rails. And from a health point of view he was not looking after himself. He was diabetic, he wasn’t monitoring things, everything was chaotic, and he’s now back on line. If you asked him he would say, “Yes, it’s Upstream that’s done it.” And he’s probably right.’ It was something he could sustain himself at home.’
• ‘So often what happens is that [elderly] people lose their partner and they lose confidence. They’re used to going out as a couple and they just can’t face going out alone. You need a push, someone to encourage you. The mentors are good because they go in gently, they build up confidence. That’s so important because loneliness and isolation in old age is dreadful and it just gets worse and worse and worse.’
• ‘Often when you’re struggling to some extent and you’re thinking, “This person’s lot isn’t very good, how can I improve it?” And you’ve got the ‘medical things’ under control but that isn’t making the life of that person very enjoyable … and if there isn’t [a network] or they don’t use it maybe Upstream can fill that gap.’
• ‘The feedback we get from the family is very positive. They see changes. They say he seems brighter. Benefits that come from interacting and getting out of yourself, I think. One of the son’s, he’s very complimentary, which means that the family are also happier, more at ease.’