An innovative approach to delivering cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) techniques to older people for the management of non-acute emotional and psychological issues. The organisational model hinges on training volunteers to deliver the product, with volunteers selected from retirees, who will themeselves go on to benefit from these emotional resilience techniques as they age. We are currently working with Dr Chris Williams from Glasgow University who has developed a jargon-free CBT model (‘Living Life to the Full'), and Manchester and South Tyneside local authorities, who have agreed to run a 6-9 month pilot. The pilot will train two initial groups of volunteers, who will then deliver a series of groups targeted at older people with low level anxiety and depression, many of whom will have recently undergone shocks in their life such as bereavement, illness or moving home. The pilot will be evaluated, and then rolled-out to provide a highly scalable cost efficient way to deal with emotional resilience amongst older people.
