The creative cycle: receiving and giving help in a black and minority ethnic counselling service
| Pages | 198-203 |
| Published date | 17 November 2011 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/20428301111186840 |
| Date | 17 November 2011 |
| Author | Beverley Costa |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
The creative cycle: receiving and giving
help in a black and minority ethnic
counselling service
Beverley Costa
Abstract
Purpose – This paper seeks to provide an overview of Mothertongue, a multi-ethnic counselling
service which offers volunteering opportunities for people from a range of black and minority ethnic
(BME) backgrounds. The paper aims to explore the roles that volunteers occupy,the ways these have
changed over the life of the organisation, and the ways in which they provide opportunities for social
inclusion.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper provides a descriptive account of the project with
discussion of the challenges the organisation has faced during its development.
Findings – Mothertongue provides a safe community space for individuals in distress to try out a range
of activities and roles through its volunteering opportunities; and to move between dependency,
independence, and the ability to offer support to others. The volunteering opportunities promote social
inclusion for both clients and volunteers – offering possibilities to meet with people from a wide range of
cultures.
Originality/value – There are limited expositions of the ways in which a BME counselling service
can develop a non-clinical volunteering arm which develops people’s often undervalued skills of
bilingualism.
Keywords Volunteering, Black and minority ethnic communities, BME communities, Counselling,
Communities, Attachment, Acculturation, Belonging
Paper type Case study
Mothertongue
Mothertongue is a culturally and linguistically sensitive, professional counselling service
where people are heard with respect in their chosen language. The charity offers holistic
support to people and professional development to staff and volunteers from black and
minority ethnic (BME) communities. The support offered in many languages, can, for new
arrivals to the UK, be the difference between settling well and integrating productively, or
getting into severe difficulties.
Many of our clients come from small villages where they have had little exposure to people
outside their immediate community until they come to the UK. They are often doubly
disadvantaged and excluded: isolated because of their emotional and mental health
problems, but also because they are from another culture, speaking only limited English and
lacking the resources to participate fully in society.
For BME communities, the ability to access a mental health service which is located within their
own communities can make the differencebetween them accessing or not accessing the help
they need (Eleftheriadou, 2010; Fernando, 2003). It can also make the difference between
them having a sense of being included in or excluded by society.The word community not only
refers to shared characteristics, but also to the feeling of sharing things and belonging to a
group in the place where lives (Turnbull, 2011).
PAGE 198
j
MENTAL HEALTHAND SOCIAL INCLUSION
j
VOL. 15 NO. 4 2011, pp. 198-203, QEmerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 2042-8308 DOI 10.1108/20428301111186840
Beverley Costa is CEO and
Clinical Director
of Mothertongue,
Reading, UK.
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