Clifton, Andrew (2022) ‘My story’: using a life story approach to build friendships between younger and older people to alleviate loneliness and social isolation. Mental Health Review Journal. ISSN 1361-9322 (In Press)

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Abstract

Loneliness and social isolation for older people remain a problem. Intergenerational befriending may be one solution that could help with loneliness and social isolation. ‘My Story’ is based on a life story approach aimed at facilitating friendship by providing a format for older and younger people to interact. An original pilot was undertaken to test the approach by bringing together older people identified as lonely by a voluntary sector provider and pairing these with a student volunteer. The students visited the older person over six weeks to discuss their life story and create an artefact based on the story of the older person. Three pairings were studied to explore the experiences of the older and younger person using ‘My Story’. The focus of the case studies was if a therapeutic alliance emerged which could lead to friendship. The research found that in the two of the pairings, ‘My Story’ helped to create mutual benefit and a therapeutic bond that could lead to friendship. As this was an exploratory and small pilot, more cases and further research is required to fully assess if ‘My Story’ is an effective approach to intergenerational befriending

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