Summary
This document, from the Mental Health Foundation (MHF) and partners, offers guidance to organisations wishing to deliver peer support for people with long-term conditions.
A research project (2010 to 2011), funded by the Long Term Conditions Alliance Scotland (LTCAS), investigated the implementation of peer support services for people with long-term conditions throughout Scotland. It found that such peer support across Scotland had a positive impact on people’s emotional and physical health, but that access to such services was inconsistent. Support services reported challenges in the integration with other mainstream services and a lack of perceived credibility in the eyes of potential referrers.
Guidance covers:
- Background information on peer support and its benefits.
- Who benefits most.
- The matching process.
- Formalisation of peer support.
- Roles and functions.
- Confidentiality.
- Clarifying boundaries.
- Support and supervision.
- Training.
- Partnership working.
- Sustaining peer support services.
- Evaluation and monitoring.
Reference
Mental Health Foundation (2012). Peer Support in Long Term Conditions: the Basics. Edinburgh: Mental Health Foundation, September 2012.
Thank you for a very interesting article – I am a UK citizen doing Social work in Private Practice in SA. I designed a tool, based on what I learned in the UK, to use Self Social and Health Care Assessment and Peer Assessment for people with low literacy levels and very limited resources, like living in informal settings – it works, groups are growing and peer support in these communities work very well – interesting video footage available Elsette Strachan