The power of low-key groupwork activities in mental health support work

: The UK government’s Health and Social Care Bill (Department of Health 2011) proposes that the delivery of care, including mental health services, will be organised through a range of different providers including social firms and charities. General practitioners (GPs)will be at the core of this process (GPonline, 2011). This paper explores the group based practices of two voluntary social enterprise projects in one of the most impoverished inner city areas in England (Sheffield City Council, 2004). This paper results from a realistic evaluation project which explored how the service delivered benefits for members, using focus groups, a wellbeing survey, and interviews. The findings and thematic discussion show that both services are characterised by groupwork underpinned by local involvement and community feel. The groups have been developed so as to allow a low key, mutually negotiated level of engagement, focussed on attendance, support and enabling participation .