Abstract:Background: Engaging peer support to augment and enhance traditional mental health services presents novel opportunities to improve service engagement and delivery. However, there has not been an in-depth analysis of the processes and methods behind the coordination of physical health and mental health care by peer support specialists. Study aim: To explore the potential of peer support specialists in community mental health centers and as a means to improve coordination of physical health and mental health se… Show more
“…Similar findings have been found in peer engagement for youth program development [17]. Among adults, patient involvement in mental health and substance use settings reduced hospital readmission, increased patient well-being and engagement, and provided educational opportunities to health care staff and systems [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]. Lastly, several studies identified the importance of developing new processes of patient-oriented care, with the help of PWLE, rather than using existing practices with the hope that patients will adapt [27,28].…”
Plain English summary
Researchers have explored different types of treatment to help people with a mental illness with other problems they might be experiencing, such as their health condition and quality of life. Care models that involve many different health care providers working together to provide complete physical and mental health care are becoming popular. There has been a push from the research community to understand the value of including people with lived experience in such programs. While research suggests that people with lived experience may help a patient’s treatment, there is little evidence on including them in a team based program. This paper describes how our research team included a person with lived experience of psychosis in both the research and care process. We list some guiding principles we used to work through some of the common challenges that are mentioned in research. Lastly, experiences from the research team, lessons learned, and a personal statement from the person with lived experience (AA) are provided to help future researchers and people with lived experience collaborate in research and healthcare.
Abstract
Background
In our current healthcare system, people with a mental illness experience poorer physical health and early mortality in part due to the inconsistent collaboration between primary care and specialized mental health care. In efforts to bridge this gap, hospitals and primary care settings have begun to take an integrated approach to care by implementing collaborative care models to treat a variety of conditions in the past decade. The collaborative care model addresses common barriers to treatment, such as geographical distance and lack of individualized, evidence-based, measurement-based treatment. Person(s) with lived experience (PWLE) are regarded as ‘experts by experience’ in the scope of their first-hand experience with a diagnosis or health condition. Research suggests that including PWLE in a patient’s care and treatment has significant contributions to the patient’s treatment and overall outcome. However, there is minimal evidence of including PWLE in collaborative care models. This paper describes the inclusion of a PWLE in a research study and collaborative care team for youth with early psychosis.
Aims
To discuss the active involvement of a PWLE on the research and collaborative care team and to describe the research team’s experiences and perspectives to facilitate future collaborations.
Method
This paper describes the inclusion of a PWLE on our research team. We provide a selective review of the literature on several global initiatives of including PWLE in different facets of the healthcare system. Additionally, we outline multiple challenges of involving PWLE in research and service delivery. Examples are provided on how recruitment and involvement was facilitated, with the guidance of several principles. Lastly, we have included a narrative note from the PWLE included in our study, who is also a contributing author to this paper (AA), where she comments on her experience in the research study.
Conclusion
Including PWLE in active roles in research studies and collaborative care teams can enhance the experience of the researchers, collaborative care team members, and PWLE. We showcase our method to empower other researchers and service providers to continue to seek guidance from PWLE to provide more comprehensive, collaborative care with better health outcomes for the patient, and a more satisfying care experience for the provider.
“…Similar findings have been found in peer engagement for youth program development [17]. Among adults, patient involvement in mental health and substance use settings reduced hospital readmission, increased patient well-being and engagement, and provided educational opportunities to health care staff and systems [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]. Lastly, several studies identified the importance of developing new processes of patient-oriented care, with the help of PWLE, rather than using existing practices with the hope that patients will adapt [27,28].…”
Plain English summary
Researchers have explored different types of treatment to help people with a mental illness with other problems they might be experiencing, such as their health condition and quality of life. Care models that involve many different health care providers working together to provide complete physical and mental health care are becoming popular. There has been a push from the research community to understand the value of including people with lived experience in such programs. While research suggests that people with lived experience may help a patient’s treatment, there is little evidence on including them in a team based program. This paper describes how our research team included a person with lived experience of psychosis in both the research and care process. We list some guiding principles we used to work through some of the common challenges that are mentioned in research. Lastly, experiences from the research team, lessons learned, and a personal statement from the person with lived experience (AA) are provided to help future researchers and people with lived experience collaborate in research and healthcare.
Abstract
Background
In our current healthcare system, people with a mental illness experience poorer physical health and early mortality in part due to the inconsistent collaboration between primary care and specialized mental health care. In efforts to bridge this gap, hospitals and primary care settings have begun to take an integrated approach to care by implementing collaborative care models to treat a variety of conditions in the past decade. The collaborative care model addresses common barriers to treatment, such as geographical distance and lack of individualized, evidence-based, measurement-based treatment. Person(s) with lived experience (PWLE) are regarded as ‘experts by experience’ in the scope of their first-hand experience with a diagnosis or health condition. Research suggests that including PWLE in a patient’s care and treatment has significant contributions to the patient’s treatment and overall outcome. However, there is minimal evidence of including PWLE in collaborative care models. This paper describes the inclusion of a PWLE in a research study and collaborative care team for youth with early psychosis.
Aims
To discuss the active involvement of a PWLE on the research and collaborative care team and to describe the research team’s experiences and perspectives to facilitate future collaborations.
Method
This paper describes the inclusion of a PWLE on our research team. We provide a selective review of the literature on several global initiatives of including PWLE in different facets of the healthcare system. Additionally, we outline multiple challenges of involving PWLE in research and service delivery. Examples are provided on how recruitment and involvement was facilitated, with the guidance of several principles. Lastly, we have included a narrative note from the PWLE included in our study, who is also a contributing author to this paper (AA), where she comments on her experience in the research study.
Conclusion
Including PWLE in active roles in research studies and collaborative care teams can enhance the experience of the researchers, collaborative care team members, and PWLE. We showcase our method to empower other researchers and service providers to continue to seek guidance from PWLE to provide more comprehensive, collaborative care with better health outcomes for the patient, and a more satisfying care experience for the provider.
“…We included research articles that used diverse titles to label the positions or roles of people working with a lived experience background. Examples are “experts by experience” (Cooke et al, 2015 ; Jones & Pietilä, 2020 ), “peer providers” (Moran et al, 2012 , 2013 ; Siantz et al, 2016 , 2017 ; Zeng & Chung, 2019 ; Zeng et al, 2020 ), “peer support specialists” (Jenkins et al, 2020 ; Pantridge et al, 2016 ; Poremski et al, 2021 ), “peer support workers” (Collins et al, 2016 ; Nossek et al, 2021 ; Otte et al, 2019 ), “peer specialist” (Ahmed et al, 2015 ; Kuhn et al, 2015 ; Storm et al, 2020 ), and “peer workers” (Byrne et al, 2021b ; Gillard et al, 2015 , 2017 ; Marks et al, 2022 ; Oborn et al, 2019 ).…”
People with lived experience of mental health challenges are extensively employed as peer workers within mental health and substance use services worldwide. Research shows that peer workers benefit individuals using such services and can have essential roles in developing recovery-oriented services. However, understanding how peer workers’ contributions, by their role, functions, and input can be better used remains a critical challenge. Research on public sector innovation has focused on relevant actors collaborating to tackle complex demands. Co-production and co-creation are concepts used to describe this collaboration. Co-production refers to the collaboration between providers and users at the point of service delivery, whereas co-creation refers to collaboration starting in the early service cycle phases (e.g., in commissioning or design), including solution implementation. We overviewed research literature describing peer workers’ involvement in mental health and substance use services. The research question is as follows: How are peer workers involved in co-production and co-creation in mental health and substance use services, and what are the described outcomes? A literature search was performed in 10 different databases, and 13,178 articles were screened, of which 172 research articles describing peer workers’ roles or activities were included. The findings show that peer workers are involved in co-production and function as providers of pre-determined services or, most often, as providers of peer support. However, they are rarely engaged as partners in co-creation. We conclude that the identified peer worker roles have different potential to generate input and affect service delivery and development.
“…Graduated peer counsellors, a new and rapidly growing profession already present in many addiction units, who can belong to medical teams at hepatology units as they already do, 71 could lower the threshold of engaging with peers, facilitate problem recognition and treatment adherence in patients with ALD, and improve stigmatising attitudes among healthcare professionals who would then experience working together with people in recovery. Involvement of trained people with lived experience in professional healthcare settings is common in mental healthcare, 74 and developing, evaluating and optimising such collaborative concepts in ALD care could be fruitful.…”
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