Pushing, Patience, and Persistence: Peer Providers' Perspectives on Supportive Relationships

Abstract

Little is known about the experiences of peer support providers. This report describes a qualitative study of such experiences drawn from a project offering peer support to persons with mental illnesses who had multiple inpatient admissions within an 18-month period. Interviews focused on peer staff's relationships with participants; identifying and exploring participant interests, strengths, and aspirations; use of self-disclosure; and connecting participants to other services. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using established phenomenological data analytic strategies. Peer staff described a tension between pushing and patience and the need for gentle persistence, the art and value of adopting an accepting and nonjudgmental attitude, and the process of identifying and building on strengths in pursuit of personal goals. The mutual identification between peer supporters and clients represented both an advantage and a potential liability, in that peer staff tied their own feelings of self-worth to the outcomes of their clients' struggles. Rather than viewing the deeply personal nature of peer support as posing risks due to a perceived vulnerability on the part of peer support providers, these findings suggest the need for ways to train peer staff in managing safely the vicarious trauma, frustrations, and inevitable setbacks involved in this work.

Thematic analysis of mechanisms underpinning email peer support for young people with eating disorders

“…A fundamental finding aligned with previous literature was that shared experience provided a foundation that facilitated other support mechanisms, where PBs communicated and used their experiential knowledge to facilitate the peer support process. Watson (2017) conceptualised the Use of Lived Experience which details using personal experience to provide support both explicitly, to earn credibility amongst those individuals were supporting (Austin et al, 2014;Mourra et al, 2014), and implicitly to explain what was helpful in recovery (Austin et al, 2014;Watson, 2017). This process, underpinned by SLT, was clearly demonstrated within our analysis, where the PBs modelled recovery through discussing their personal experiences with the YPs.…”

Outcomes of a Peer Mentor Intervention for Persons With Recurrent Psychiatric Hospitalization

“…On the other hand, spending time with mentors with lived experience of recovery may provide specific rewards that are superior in effectiveness to the benefits of other relationships. Our qualitative study (19) suggests that RMs may bring specific factors to their interactions with their mentees that may be considered as falling under the construct of accurate empathy and engagement. These factors would allow them to share a unique understanding of the challenges facing their clients and demonstrate a special sensitivity to the dilemmas of those who are re-experiencing difficulties, worsened by loneliness and low self-esteem.…”

“…RMs were individuals who self-identified as being in recovery from serious mental illness and who were open to sharing their experiences to assist others in the recovery process (18,19). Over the course of the study, eight RMs, who competed via formal job postings, were hired and trained to provide community-based support to individuals in this study following the individuals' discharge from an index hospitalization.…”

“…This study is the third of three reports exploring dimensions of the effectiveness and experience of peer support for persons with multiple hospitalizations (18,19). In this installment, we explore the relationship between a peer mentor intervention and improved clinical outcomes and increased community tenure among a sample of individuals with serious mental illness and a history of multiple hospitalizations (18).…”

Being a peer support mentor for individuals who have had a lower limb amputation: an interpretative phenomenological analysis

“…However, challenges have also been identified within the literature, for example, negative emotions such as feelings of rejection, loss, failure, inadequacy, isolation, or emotional entanglement. This can affect mentors' own wellbeing through revisiting negative emotion related to their experiences [16][17].…”