Horizons Case Study - S
S was a 19 year old woman who had a mentor with Horizons for just over a year. When she applied to the project, she was living in a women only hostel having been thrown out of the family home by her mother. She was waiting to be re-housed, which happened a couple of months later when she accepted a room in a young persons supported housing project.
She had made a couple of suicide attempts two years previously and had a long history of self-harm, having cut herself regularly for about six years in her early teens.
S was matched with a mentor, N, in her mid-twenties. N worked for Bristol City Council. They spent the first few months going for walks or meeting for a coffee and just chatting about ways S could move forward.
S suffered from depression and debilitating social phobia. This was something that changed every week, so some weeks she was able to go with a friend to a cafe and the following week she felt unable to leave her room or speak to anybody. That made regular meetings with her mentee very difficult.
But during the year N slowly helped S to have a life outside of her four walls. She accompanied her on short outings to the local shops, to the cinema or sometimes just around the block for a short walks depending on how S was feeling. S joined the local library with N's help and was then able to get books out on social phobia and depression so she could find out ways to help herself.
N helped S get a counsellor and attended the first few sessions with S so that she gained the confidence to go on her own.
Together they also found out about and attended a social phobia self-help group where S was able to talk to other people who were experiencing similar things and get weekly exercises to help her overcome her fears.
S still finds life difficult and is still not very confident about joining new social groups or meeting new people. But she has applied to start a course at college and is hoping to do some voluntary work in the near future.
If you are interested in becoming a Mentor or you feel that you would benefit from having a Mentor like S did, please look at the Horizons page within the "Our Services" menu.