Peer Support

Peer Support Workers are mental health professionals who are members of the multidisciplinary team that provide mental health care and treatment to people in the community. They can be people who have lived experience of mental health difficulties themselves or be a person whose family was impacted by mental ill health.

Peer Support Workers use their own lived experience of psychological distress and recovery to offer advice, empathy, and validation. This helps people to:

• Establish a sense of safety,
• Manage negative or unfair views that may be in our community about mental illness,
• Build hope and feel accepted,
• Focus on their own health and wellbeing,
• Experience meaningful connection, belonging, and healing, and
• Respectfully challenge power imbalances in mental health services.

Peer support is based on the principles of respect, shared responsibility, and agreement of what is helpful. The roll out of Peer Support in Community Healthcare East is in its early stages. Currently there are a very small number of Peer Support Workers and Peer Support students within our service. You can contact your Community Mental Health Team to see if Peer Support is available to you.