Thomas' Samaritans Placement Blog

Getting Everything Together

tomgaunt — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:55:08 +0000

Since my last entry, we have made significant progress. We have decided which case studies to include within the report and finally seem to have managed to bridge the gap between the strategic aims of the project and what the branches actually want. This has been helped by a meeting with the chair of the Hamilton branch and another meeting with the Steering Group, where we explained our progress thus far and how we saw the project looking when completed. Fortunately, the Steering Group seemed happy with our progress.

In order to ensure that we provide relevant information, we have distributed a short questionnaire to the branches, asking them about any partnerships they already have and how they came into place. Hopefully when we receive the responses to this it will just be a question of compiling all the information and ensuring it is presented in an effective manner.

From a personal perspective, I am quite happy with the project at the moment as it has taken a long time to work out exactly how to go about creating the pack. This has certainly been a valuable experience, demonstrating the importance of considering different perspectives and the need to come to find an effective compromise. I am looking forward to completing the bulk of the written project over the next week or so.

Dividing the Work

tomgaunt — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 08:32:17 +0000

The past week we met with the chair of the Borders branch. This meeting was interesting, as the issues faced in the Borders are obviously rather different to those affecting the Glasgow branch. Moreover, it appears that the Borders branch has a rather different outlook towards dealing with other organisations. Indeed, they have already made various attempts to work with health authorities. The Borders Chair suggested that including a ‘how to’ guide, explaining how to go about contacting local authorities and the NHS, could prove useful to the branches.

After this meeting, Catriona and I began to put together a template introduction to the pack. This aims to explain various key terms, for example the Single Outcome Agreements, and explain how they relate to The Samaritans. In addition to this, we divided the branches between the two of us, after deciding that this was the most sensible way to split the workload. For the rest of the week, I worked away at the template and began working on some of the branches that had been assigned to me.

After the various meetings over the past few weeks and talking things through with Catriona, I feel like I now have a much better handle on what we are actually doing. We are planning to schedule one more meeting with the Dundee branch and hopefully after this meeting the actual format of the document should not have to change too much.

Meetings and Adjustments

tomgaunt — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:47:11 +0000

The past week has been eventful, to begin with, we had a meeting with Fiona from the Higher Education Academy, to talk about our progress with the placement and how we thought it would aid us in the future. Later in the week we had a meeting with the chair of the Glasgow branch. This meeting was informative, however during its course it became apparent that we would need to revise some of the work that we have done to present. The next day we met with Frances, who is overseeing the project, and discussed the meeting with the Glasgow chair. After talking the issues through with Frances, it became clear that we need to strike a balance between providing the local information that the Glasgow branch seemed to want and the contacts that Frances wants us to provide, to achieve the medium-term aims of the placement.

We are due to meet the chair of the Borders branch next, hopefully this will help to further clarify the project in our minds. Meanwhile, we are working on writing a generic introduction to the pack, explaining how Single Outcome Agreements and Community Planning Partnerships relate to the workings and aims of the Samaritans.

Starting the project

tomgaunt — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 15:57:44 +0000

This was a week where the task of researching and compiling the large amounts of information began properly. After completing the template of the SOA’s, I researched the relevant NHS structures in Glasgow and The Borders. In the course of this task, it became clear that some of the information that I gathered may not have been relevant. At this stage however, it seems best to gather as much information as possible, then hopefully next week when we have meetings with people in the branches we will be in a better position to prioritise key pieces of information.

After completing my research relating to Glasgow and The Borders, I began working on the pack for the Aberdeen branch. This has allowed me to gain an insight into looking into the local authority side of the project. At the beginning, progress is rather slow as it takes a while to get used to the layout of the council and NHS websites (which is sometimes not particularly logical). Hopefully by next week however, the process will have sped up a little.

Anyway, I am looking forward to meeting with Catriona next week, in order to discuss our progress and plan how we are going to move the project forward. I am sure that from this point, things will begin to fall smoothly into place.

Dundee and Glasgow

tomgaunt — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 12:47:04 +0000

Yesterday I travelled to Dundee to meet with Catriona and Frances. To begin with, there was a brief discussion about The Samaritans generally, which was very useful. Following this we talked about the project in more detail and it was clear that, at the outset at least, the parameters of the assignment are not particularly stringent. The train journey back to Glasgow provided Catriona and I with the opportunity to get to know each other and discuss a few ideas. In the evening, I began to look at the SOAs (Single Outcome Agreements), which form an important component of the project.

This afternoon, we went to the Glasgow branch of the Samaritans to meet with Frances, this time joined by two volunteers. This provided a crucial opportunity to talk to people who had a great deal of experience within The Samaritans, at a branch level. I feel like I now have a more in-depth understanding of the organisation, particularly in terms of how they deal with callers and operate on a national basis.

For the time being, Catriona and I are focusing on trying to create a template- detailing the various SOAs and the relationships between the branches and the relevant local authorities. This process at the moment can be slightly tricky, hopefully however it will provide us with a firm base to continue and I am excited to begin working on the project.

Placement blog created

sheenplacements — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 09:59:14 +0000

This blog has been set up as a sub-blog of the SHEEN Placements project. This is a placement blog for Thomas, who will be starting shortly in a placement with the charity Samaritans in Scotland.