Compeer friends: a qualitative study of a volunteer friendship programme for people with serious mental illness.

Background: People with serious mental illness (SMI) experience numerous barriers to developing and maintaining friendships.

Aims: To explore the benefits and drawbacks of an intentional friendship programme (Compeer, Inc), which develops new social relationships for people with SMI by matching them in one-to-one relationships with community volunteers for weekly social activities.

Methods: Twenty clients and volunteers, in Compeer friendships for different lengths of time, participated in individual semi-structured qualitative interviews.

Stigma of depression is more severe in Chinese Americans than Caucasian Americans.

Stigma of mental illness is a major obstacle to its diagnosis and treatment and may be worse among Asians than Caucasians. This study compared the stigma of depression in 50 Chinese Americans (CA) and 50 Caucasian Americans (WA). Subjects were asked to read 5 case vignettes in the following order: diabetes mellitus (DB), major depressive disorder (MDD), somatoform depression (SD), psychotic depression (PD), and fever of unknown origin (HA).

Increasing social support for individuals with serious mental illness: evaluating the compeer model of intentional friendship.

We conducted a quasi-experimental study of Compeer, which matches community volunteers and people with SMI to increase social support. Seventy-five adults with SMI received community psychiatric treatments-usual (TAU) while 79 adults received Compeer services plus TAU. Compeer clients reported significant improvements in social support and a trend towards improved subjective well-being.