Where is peer support going?
| Published date | 15 May 2019 |
| Date | 15 May 2019 |
| Pages | 61-63 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/MHSI-05-2019-060 |
| Author | Rachel Perkins,Julie Repper |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Mental health,Social inclusion |
Rachel Perkins and Julie Repper
Where is peer support going?
Peer support is not new. For as long as people have used mental health services, people
diagnosed with mental health challenges have provided support to each other and peer led
groups and services have become widespread in many parts of the world (see, e.g. Chamberlin,
1978; O’Hagan, 2014). Today, numerous local peer support initiatives exist, many peer support
and peer led groups have developed within voluntary sector organisations. For example, Bipolar
UK[1] and the Hearing Voices Network[2] have long seen peer support as a core part of their
business and a core part of Mind’s 2012–2016 strategy is to ensure that “Everyone in England
and Wales with mental health problems can access peer support by 2016”(Mind, 2013, p. 1).
More recently, Mind’s Peer Support in the Community programme 2018–2021 aims to establish
ten Community Peer Support Hub Networks, with each Hub supporting 60 local peer support
leaders and groups. In addition, a range of on-line peer support opportunities have developed[3].
As the value of peer support has been increasingly recognised, so more formal peer roles have
been created in mental health services across the western world (Repper et al., 2013) and the
need to increase the availability of peer support has been widely recognised and included in
policy documents (see, e.g. Mental Health Task Force, 2016). It has been argued that peer
support workers employed in mainstream mental health services are “not really peer”, and that
within the hierarchies, rules and legal framework of such services real, reciprocal relationships are
not possible: “real”peer support needs to be independent. However, the peer led research
conducted by Onken et al. (2002), found that people greatly valued peer support in their journey
of recovery. In relation to peer support, people said they found diverse models of peer support
helpful, including peer support workers employed within traditional mental health services.
Peer research indicates that introducing peer support workers into clinical teams can have a
positive influence on the culture of the team with staff becoming more optimistic about the
recovery potential of all those using the service. Peer support has also been shown to improve
the outcomes of people receiving it, enhancing their sense of hope and empowerment, reducing
length of stay in hospital and increasing their engagement in community activities (see Repper
and Carter, 2011; Repper et al., 2013). On top of this, being a peer support worker can improve
the recovery of peers themselves. Indeed, Slade et al. (2017) claim that there is more evidence
underpinning peer support than any other mental health profession.
Not surprisingly increasing numbers of organisations are employing peer support workers within
their workforce. Peers are now working across mental health services including not only adult
community teams and inpatient wards, but also children and adolescent, forensic and dementia
services. They are working in primary care, in community navigation roles and their numbers are
growing in physical health services for example in palliative care services, as breast feeding
support workers and with people who have complex and long term conditions.
In addition, there are an increasing number of people working as nurses, psychiatrists,
psychologists, occupational therapists and social workers who have their own lived experience
of mental health challenges. Increasingly such people are feeling able to use their personal
experience of mental health challenges, alongside their professional expertise, in their work in
mental health services. However, while people employed in other professional roles may use their
lived experience to enhance their professional skills they are not peer support workers.
A professional who also has lived experience of mental health challenges is still a professional:
traditional power, hierarchy and claims to special knowledge remain and impede the mutuality
DOI 10.1108/MHSI-05-2019-060 VOL. 23 NO. 2 2019, pp. 61-63, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2042-8308
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MENTALHEALTH AND SOCIAL INCLUSION
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PAG E 61
Editorial
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