Peer Support Mental Health: What Have We Learned

Working together to change the system! Whenever Changing Lives, the Mental Health Commission of Canada’s Youth Council has created a youth version ofChanging Directions. Mental Health Commission of Canada created quite a few resources to promote peer support as an essential component of the mental health system. It is an important contributor to recovery, peer support is a supportive relationship between people who have a lived experience that is similar. Peer support worker provides emotional and social support to others who share an ordinary experience. Empowerment and the development of personal resourcefulness the foundation of peer support not only improves people’s lives but also saves money by reducing the use of more formal mental health, medical, and social services. Seriously. Peer support works. Did you hear of something like this before? Informal peer support occurs when acquaintances notice the similarity of their lived experience and listen to and support ourselves. Plenty of information can be found easily on the internet. Whenever empowering relationship, peer support within a structured clinical setting can involve programs where peer support workers offer the opportunity for a supportive.

Various kinds of peer types support fall along a spectrum ranging from informal support to formal peer support within a structured organizational setting. In its 2010 report,Making the Case for Peer Support, the MHCC’s formerService Systems Advisory Committeeevaluated the current status of peer support in Canada. I know that the MHCC launched the Peer Project to create national guidelines of practice for peer support and to evaluate the effectiveness of workplacebased peer support programs. Peer support considers the wellness of the entire person and focuses on health and recovery rather than illness and disability, with an eye to assist people in finding their own path to recovery. Peer support programs work by offering people support, encouragement, and hope that recovery is possible. That is interesting. There’s no onesizefitsall approach to peer support. Whether in peer run organizations, it can take many different forms and be offered wherever people need it, workplaces, schools, or healthcare settings. This is the case. People with lived experience of mental illness and homelessness played a vital role in the MHCC’sAt Home/Chez Soiproject. Essentially, peer support programs can that in turn can improve their ability to care for their loved ones and themselves, these initiatives also have the potential to connect families of people with mental health problems or illnesses. On top of that, the relationship forged between the peer supporter and the person with a mental health problem or illness can help improve quality of life as well as reduce the need for hospitalization. Peer support must continue to grow throughout the mental health system and become a core contributor to the recovery process.

Growing and sustaining such initiatives requires adequate funding, people can experience great improvements in their lives through relativelyfairly small investments in peer support.

Ann Miller

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