MINUTES OF THE NATIONAL FORUM ON OLDER VOLUNTEERING IN SCOTLAND, NATIONAL CONFERENCE,

THURSDAY, MARCH 13^th, 2008

THE TOLBOOTH, JAIL WYND,

STIRLING FK8 1 DE

1. Welcome and introductions

Helen Quigley as Vice Chair welcomed everyone to the second national conference of the National Forum on Older Volunteering and introductions were done in small groups.

2. Notes of the last Meeting and Matters Arising

The notes of the last meeting were accepted as accurate, and there were two Matters Arising. In Item 4 the Forum Working Group had made informal approaches to invite Nicola Sturgeon, as Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, to address the National Conference. However, the advice from her staff was that her attendance would be highly unlikely in light of her other commitments as Deputy First Minister. The Forum Working Group therefore suggested that she be invited at a later stage.

In Item 5 Laurie Young informed Forum members that the £40million from dormant bank accounts would be the subject of a consultation exercise, to seek views about how the money should be allocated.

3A - Presentation 1 Sandra Grant OBE, Steering Group for the Mental Health and Wellbeing in Later Life (MHWILL) Programme of NHS Scotland.

Sandra outlined the context of this work which has two functions – the promotion of physical activity in later life, and participation in an EU programme on Healthy Ageing. She outlined the five key principles of the programme:

• Involving older people in the planning and delivery of the programme
• Addressing inequalities
• Building strategic partnerships
• Advancing understanding of Scotland’s health and how it can be improved
• Building capacity for health improvement

The MHWILL programme was established in 2003 and reviewed in 2006. Over 1,000 people were involved in the research over that three year period. The key issues that emerged were discrimination, participation in meaningful activity, relationships, physical health and poverty. The second phase of the programme focused particularly on the views and experience of people who are disadvantaged, both socially and financially. The findings at this stage confirmed that social isolation is a key priority for older people, and that having meaningful activities to keep them occupied is a major need.

In conclusion, there are positive messages coming out of this work. People need more information about the opportunities available to them. Community engagement with older people is essential to maintain and improve their mental health and wellbeing. Volunteering is particularly valuable because of the mutual benefits to older people themselves and the communities they live in, but there are additional needs in terms of training and support. The discussion that followed reflected that people living in rural areas face additional problems because of poor transport links. The future of the MHWILL work is uncertain because of funding uncertainty.

3B - Presentation 2 – Maureen Marley, Senior Studies Institute, University of Strathclyde

Maureen is responsible for the volunteer tour guides who operate in locations connected to the University of Strathclyde. The Barony Church was bought by the University in 1986 for £100, and was recently refurbished at a cost of £3.5million. It is now used for graduations, weddings and official ceremonies. The Ramshorn Theatre was built by a rich tobacco merchant and bought by the university in 1982 for £5. It now houses the Strathclyde Theatre Group. The other tour location is graveyards, which are very popular with visitors. It was a condition of grant to the University that the buildings be opened to the public, and that was the origin of the Volunteer Guide programme.

In 1994 twelve students at the Senior Studies Institute were recruited as guides, and the volunteer training was originally done by an external agency, but now the experienced guides teach the new ones with a mentoring system in place. They have their own committee with a Chair, Secretary and Treasurer and hold monthly meetings with a guest speaker and a programme of social events. Since 1994, 54 guides have been trained and four of them have been involved since the outset. Around 30,000 visitors tour the Barony and Ramshorn each year from 68 countries. Training and support are central to the sustainability of the programme. The outcomes for the volunteers have been identified as:

• Enhanced learning
• Democratic participation
• Economic activity
• Improved health
• Employment

The programme has become so well known that the materials are now published in languages such as Mandarin, Japanese and Polish.

3C – Diane Lockhart, NHS Lothian and Bryan Bannerman, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde – ‘The Surprising Face of Volunteering in the NHS’.

Diane began by asking people what they thought was the typical face of volunteering in the NHS, and then went on to give examples of volunteers doing more unusual activities. Play volunteers go into hospitals and give parents a break from caring for a sick child. The oldest play volunteer in the Sick Children’s Hospital in Edinburgh is 83, and many of the play volunteers are male. Hospital radio volunteers are often older people, and most are female. Other volunteers help with gardening, and work with patients to create and maintain gardens including Units like Spinal Injuries. In Edinburgh Royal Infirmary the Patient Information Point has many older volunteers who help patients to source information on a newly diagnosed condition. There is a Volunteer Desk right at the front entrance of the ERI to direct patients and visitors to whichever part of the hospital they want to visit. There are volunteer roles with the Bereavement Coordinator and in the Intensive Care Unit. Other volunteers help in Standards Audits of Acute Care wards. Volunteers in this role go in with a senior management person to ask questions about faults that have been reported, and then follow up to ensure that they are resolved. In the last three month period, 34 Environmental Audits have been carried out, focusing on cleanliness, signage and ambience. The skills and life experience of older volunteers are a huge asset for this particular area of work.

Bryan Bannerman then spoke about projects within Greater Glasgow NHS Trust. Up to 800,000 adults in Scotland are affected by literacy and numeracy problems. One recent project reflects the fact that literacy significantly affects people’s health, through their inability to read signs in hospital, to understand procedures, to give their consent, to take medication correctly, or to make an informed decision about treatment options. Bryan set up a pilot project with five older volunteers who have been trained to deliver literacy and numeracy tuition to patients in Acute Care. The patients can continue learning after their discharge from hospital through the Big Plus Scheme in libraries and community venues.

He also referred to the volunteer knitters who provide Trauma Teddies which are a great asset in Accident and Emergency departments for children to hold while they are in hospital and then take home to keep.

Questions and Discussion

• The location of a hospital can determine the volunteers who come forward. Diane said she had seen a change in the volunteers she now recruits since the hospital moved away from the city-centre and closer to the Niddrie and Craigmillar estates in Edinburgh.
• There was a question around ageing and ethnicity. Bryan has a lot of volunteers in his area from ethnic minority communities. He noted that they don’t think of themselves as volunteering, they just do it. He has both younger and older volunteers from ethnic communities.
• What is the best way to promote unusual volunteering like this which is less well known? More NHS managers need to be aware of the diversity of activities undertaken by volunteers within the health setting.
• It was suggested that research could be done to measure the cost savings to the NHS, when vulnerable people find meaningful activity through volunteering and reduce their usage of anti- depressants.
• There are currently 40 Voluntary Services Managers in Scotland in similar positions to Diane and Bryan and a list of them is available on request from RSVP. They meet quarterly and exchange information and ideas.
• It is important that Trade Unions fully understand that tasks done by volunteers are not substitutes for existing jobs but activities that wouldn’t happen otherwise, for example bringing different fruits to sick children to encourage them to eat more healthily. Volunteer Centre Edinburgh undertook a piece of research to calculate the health gain of volunteering measured as reducing people’s drug use. There was clear evidence that volunteering helps people to improve their mental health.

4. Report from the Working Group

It was reported that Volunteer Development Scotland has agreed to Norrie Murray joining the Forum Working Group to strengthen links with VDS and the network of Volunteer Centres. Norrie was welcomed in this new role.

Brid gave an update on the development of the Scottish Centre for Intergenerational Practice (SCIP) which was launched in October and is currently rolling out a programme of Roadshows around Scotland. Some Forum members had attended Roadshows and reported that they found the content very valuable and informative. People who wish to subscribe to the SCIP newsletters can do so by e-mailing Brian McKechnie, the Director, at brian.mckechnie@scip.org.uk or calling 0141 548 2492.

5. Information Exchange

Yvonne Coull reported that the Centre for the Older Person’s Agenda at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh was launching its new Hub on the 8^th April. This is a network for those interested in older people’s issues with opportunities for participation in consultations, educational work, research projects etc. Further details on www.qmu.ac.uk/copa .

Emma Whitelock from Lead Scotland talked about a pilot project with Learning Link Scotland to benchmark a piece of training. The pilot is being led by a retired volunteer.

Jim McAleese from Volunteer Centre Glasgow invited people to attend their event on the 23^rd April in the Royal Concert Hall to promote volunteering to older people across the city.

Maureen Marley talked about a transnational project she is developing with the Grundtvig EU funded programme, looking at the skills acquired through learning in later life. People interested in learning more should contact Maureen at maureen.marley@strath.ac.uk – telephone 0141-548-4388.

6. Conclusions and themes for the next meeting

The next meeting is to be held on the 12^th June in the Town House, Inverness, on the theme of Digital Inclusion and older people.

Helen Quigley thanked all the presenters for their contributions and thanked Forum members for their participation and the lively discussion.

7. THEATRE PIECE

After lunch there was a performance from Scottish Youth Theatre on the theme of Older People and Younger People Learning Together. The piece had been devised by young people from the theatre group, and they were joined for one rehearsal by some older volunteers from Clydebank. The discussion that followed the performance talked about the public perceptions that older people have of younger people, and the stereotype images that often come to mind. The young people talked of their own stereotyped view of older people, and how that had changed over the time working on this piece.

The main message of the piece was the way it illustrated the learning that both groups got out of the whole exercise. The young people said that meeting the volunteers from Clydebank really challenged their ideas. They felt inspired by their energy, and the range of activities they do in the community – from telephone befriending to knitting toys for hospitals – as well as by their positive attitude to IT. They imagined a scene where older people were roaming about in gangs at bus stops, creating fear among younger people! This was a very useful exercise in coming to understand how different generations can have completely mistaken perceptions of each other, how much damage this can do, and how important it is to get to know how other people think and live their lives. It was a very useful exercise in the generations working together.

ATTENDEES - THE NATIONAL FORUM ON OLDER VOLUNTEERING

IN SCOTLAND

NATIONAL CONFERENCE

THURSDAY, 13^TH MARCH, 2008

THE TOLBOOTH, JAIL WYND,

STIRLING FK8 1 DE

Ed	Archer	CSV-RSVP
Fiona	Archibald
Bryan	Bannerman	NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, VSM
Keith	Brown	RSVP Volunteer
Gail	Cassidy	Volunteer Centre East Ayrshire
Maariyah	Chaudhry	Policy Research Institute on Ageing and Ethnicity (PRIAE Scotland)
Doreen	Clacher	RSVP Volunteer
Marie	Clark	Volunteer Centre South Ayrshire
Yvonne	Coull	RBS Centre for the Older Person’s Agenda, Queen Margaret University
Brid	Cullen	CSV-RSVP
Betty	Devlin	Volunteer, Clydebank Seniors’ Forum
Harriet	Eadie	Volunteer Centre Edinburgh
Diana	Findlay	SOPAG
Mary	Gapinski	Scottish Youth Theatre
Sandra	Grant	Steering Group Member, NHS Health Scotland
Graeme	Hodge	Angus Gold Project, Angus Council
Andrew	Jackson	WRVS
Mary	Kennedy	Volunteer, Clydebank Seniors’ Forum
Hazel	Kerr	Volunteer Centre Clackmannanshire
Diane	Lockhart	NHS Lothian, VSM
Ann	MacEwan	British Lung Foundation
Maureen	Marley	Strathclyde University, Glasgow
Jim	McAleese	Volunteer Centre, Glasgow
Carol	McAllister	CSV-RSVP
Cathie	McElroy	Volunteer, Clydebank Seniors’ Forum
Kenny	McGlashan	Scottish Youth Theatre
Elinor	McKenzie	Scottish Pensioners’ Forum
Sarah	McLellan	RSVP Volunteer
Linda	McNeill	Volunteer Centre East Lothian
Mark	Meiklejohn	Scottish Government
Helen	Milnes	SDAMH
Sharon	Moncrief	Carers’ Link East Dunbartonshire
Mary	Moriarty	Volunteer, Clydebank Seniors’ Forum
Rona	Morrison	Scottish Youth Theatre
Norrie	Murray	Volunteer Development Scotland
Ann	Paget	RSVP Volunteer
Fraser	Parry	Scottish Youth Theatre
Rhona	Pidgeon	Volunteer, Clydebank Seniors’ Forum
Helen	Quigley	RSVP Volunteer
Tudor	Rees	Primary Care Organiser, RSVP Stirling
Elaine	Ritchie	Volunteer Centre Clackmannanshire
Moira	Russell	CSV-RSVP
Stan	Sanderson	CSV-RSVP
Anna	Schneider	Scottish Youth Theatre
Frances	Sharp	RSVP Volunteer
Lesley	Sherwood	NHS Forth Valley
Val	Smart	Church of Scotland Guild
Greta	Steven	RSVP Volunteer Organiser, Health
Charlotte	Stewart	Stirling Volunteer Centre
Margaret	Timoney	Outside the Box
Cathy	Traynor	Stirling Older Peoples’ Alliance (SOPA)
John	Turner	Hands on Project
Dave	Watson	REACH
Emma	Whitelock	Lead Scotland
Vivien	Willets	RSVP Volunteer
Jenni	Wright	Scottish Youth Theatre
Laurie	Young	The Discovery Award

/mr