Providing peer support on a men’s mental health ward: a service user narrative
| Date | 11 April 2024 |
| Pages | 1204-1214 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/MHSI-03-2024-0036 |
| Published date | 11 April 2024 |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Mental health,Social inclusion |
| Author | Benjamin Thomas Gray,Matthew Sisto |
Providing peer support on a men’smental
health ward: a service user narrative
Benjamin Thomas Gray and Matthew Sisto
Abstract
Purpose –The purposeof this study is to describe peer support workin a men’s mental health unit from a
lived experience and service user’s perspective. The intertwining of process (a lived experience
perspective) and subject(the therapeutic value of peer support) leads to greaterknowledge and insight
into peersupport for people with mental healthproblems.
Design/methodology/approach –This service user narrative draws on the extracts from a reflective
journal of interactions and conversations with people with mental health problems as well as feedback
from service users andstaff about the value of peer support. These methods allow a first-person,service
user’s,reflective and narrative account of peer supportwork.
Findings –Peer support work, particularly hearing voices sessions, are found to be highly therapeutic and
worthwhile. They promote insight and create feelings of safety and hope in what can sometimes be a
frightening and hostile ward environment. Peer support provides emotional and practical support. Sharing
stories and experiences of mental illness with people leads to trust, feelings of being valued, heard and
accepted as well as better experiences of care and being seen as a person first. Due to their shared
experiences, peer support workers are able to befriend people with mental health problems on the ward.
Peer support work bridges the gap and vacuum of care between people with mental health problems and
staff. It compensates for understaffing to provide more holistic and person-centred care and support.
Originality/value –Lived experience/service user perspectives and narrativeson peer support are rare,
particularlyin a hospital setting.This article provides a rich, perhaps overlookedand hidden narrative on
the nature of peer supportwork. People with mental health problems, like Ben, areoften excluded from
society, healthand social care, education, employmentand research. This narrative opensup a pathway
to understandingpeer support from a service user perspective.
Keywords Peer support, Feedback from staff and service users, Reflective journal,
Service user narrative
Paper type Viewpoint
What is peer support and a peer support worker
Peer support aims to bridge the gap between staff and people with mental health problems
and provide better, more person-centred and holistic care. Peer support involve s support and
care work in mental health by drawing on the lived and personal experience and insight of
peer support workers in their interactions with people with mental healt h problems. This
involves sharing experiences and stories in a hope-filled and empathetic manner that explo res
people’s common humanity so as to overcome the challenges of mental heal th.
All peer support workers in cohort one trained with Implementing Recovery through
Organisational Change (ImROC).ImROC offers ten principles of peer support:
The 10 principles of peer support
1. Mutuality: Connection based on mutual understanding, care and empathy.
2. Reciprocity: Both parties give, gain and benefit in a peer support relationship. People
take turns and give and take.
Benjamin Thomas Gray is
based at the Department of
Patient Experience, EP UT,
Wickford, UK and Research
Ambassador at
Healthwatch Essex, UK.
Matthew Sisto is based at
the Department of Patient
Experience, EP UT,
Wickford, UK.
The authors thank the peer
support team and other
colleagues. They also thank
Renee, Rosario, Charlotte,
Olivia, Liz and Lauren.
PAGE 1204 jMENTAL HEALTH AND SOCIAL INCLUSION jVOL. 28 NO. 6 2024, pp. 1204-1214, ©Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2042-8308 DOI 10.1108/MHSI-03-2024-0036
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