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DREAM TEAM

WELCOME

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Welcome to our interactive dream team page. Here, you can use different tools and resources to reflect on different types of social support and how they can benefit you; and identify and build your own social support network of people around you.

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How to use this page...

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As a rough estimate, this page could take around 45 minutes to complete, but take it at your own pace. It's OK to take less or more time than that. We'd strongly recommend having another way of recording your input on this page as what you enter can't be saved. Perhaps you could use:

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  • The notes section on your phone

  • Pen and paper

  • A separate Word document.

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Before we get started, take some time to think about what social support means for you. It's a good idea to have a brainstorm and to begin jotting down some ideas as they come to mind.

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It might be helpful to think of a time or situation when you have reached out for help, or been offered help.

 

At this stage, write down as many ideas as you can think of just now: you can always come back and add to it later.

Use this space to note down what social support means for you...

SOCIAL SUPPORT

Social support refers to the different ways people help each other. When we talk about social support, it can be helpful to split it into 4 categories. They serve different functions and are all important at different times in our lives.

 

Hover over the boxes below to find out more about each type.

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Thinking Man on Couch
EMOTIONAL

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Thinking Man on Couch

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Emotional support allows you to talk about your feelings. 

Person Holding Tablet
INFORMATIONAL

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Person Holding Tablet

 

 

 

 

Informational support involves getting advice or knowledge that's required to achieve a goal.

Variety of Coins
TANGIBLE

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Variety of Coins

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Tangible support is when you are provided with material support, such as resources or money.

Happy Traveler
ESTEEM

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Happy Traveler

 

 

 

 

Esteem support is there to remind you how great you are! 

No matter the type, we know that social support is an important part of building our resilience.

 

Greater social support means:

 

less psychological distress

lower risk of depressive symptoms

an increased sense of belonging

greater well-being

more opportunities to overcome challenges in our lives.

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EXAMPLES

Let's think about some possible scenarios where different types of social support might help us to boost our sense of well-being and become more resilient.

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For example, perhaps you are having issues with your accommodation; maybe you've just received some really good news; you might be feeling a bit down or upset; perhaps you're trying to find a job; maybe you're feeling bored and want someone to talk to?

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In each of these example scenarios, we can start to apply different types of social support and see how they could help us in that moment, whether you're wanting to share something that you're finding difficult, or wanting to share some positive news.

Use this space to come up with a scenario where you might need some social support. What type of support would you like if this situation came about? How would you access that type of support? Don't forget to make your own copy, as your entries can't be saved on the website.

Pencil and notepad

HOW ARE YOU FEELING?

Let's just check in for a moment - how are you feeling? You've done really well so far, make sure you reward yourself with a short break. If you feel like it, you could try one of our grounding techniques to bring yourself back into the present moment. 

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Ready to continue? Let's go on to explore how we can build our own dream team to boost our resilience.

DREAM TEAM

Creating your dream team helps you to develop awareness of who you have around you in your support network, and the types of support they provide.

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Think of the members of a sports team: you have players, coaches, managers, and supporters. What do you think are some of the strengths and qualities required in each of these roles? For example, a coach might be good at motivating their players, and be a reliable listening ear.

 

It's much the same with your own support network. You can assign different roles to the important people in your life. Sometimes, we might rely on pets, material items, or music as members of our dream team, and that's great - but we need to make sure we have a balance between these types of support and people.

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Let's take a closer look at each of these roles:

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Medic

provides emotional and/or physical support

makes you feel better

reliable

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Attack

energises you

gets things moving

you can have a laugh with them

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Caretaker

takes care of you

provides practical support

trustworthy

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Coach

encourages you

motivates you

provides helpful advice for taking care of yourself

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Defence

gets the job done

stands up for your

provides stability

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Captain

role model

can think calmly when under pressure

provides direction

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Manager

can see the 'bigger picture'

good organisational skills

knowledgeable

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Supporter

supports the decisions you make

pushes you to reach your goals

boosts your self-esteem

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For the final part of this page, this is your chance to start to build your own dream team. This can help you to reflect on the people you have around you, and the different types of social support they can offer in different scenarios.

 

In the space below, you can write down 2 members of your dream team that you can identify right now. To do this, you can use the text boxes and sliders to indicate what each person's greatest quality is, what support they can provide, and in what situations you'd go to them for support. A score of 1 means very low and 10 means very high.

 

As a side note, if you'd like to have a think about your own personal strengths and reflect on where you might fit in to someone else's dream team, you can check out our interactive strengths profiling page.

Their

STRENGTH

in this quality

1

10

How

EASY

would it be asking for support?

1

10

How

GOOD

would their support make you feel?

1

10

Their

STRENGTH

in this quality

1

10

How

EASY

would it be asking for support?

1

10

How

GOOD

would their support make you feel?

1

10

LET US KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS

We hope you've found this interactive page helpful for identifying and building your social support network. You can keep using this page to reflect on your dream team and how it might change over time. We also recommend keeping a personal copy, as the work on here can't be saved. 

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Just as a reminder, we also have a dream team tool included in our free Mental Skills Training Toolkit. You can also check out our blog post on social support, especially during lockdown.

Accessible Toolkit Image.png

Finally, we'd love to know what you thought of this page. How helpful did you find it? What else could we have included to make it more informative? Were there any technical glitches? Please let us know over on Twitter using #MSTtoolkit #MST4Life.

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Make sure you click the subscribe button below, to make sure you don't miss out on any of our social support resources and tips!

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