The role of the peer support worker in increasing rural mental health help‐seeking

Cheesmond, Natalie; Davies, Kate; Inder, Kerry

doi:10.1111/ajr.12603

Cited by 14 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Their value to rural cancer patients has been noted previously [18]. Other rural Australian populations have also indicated that this model would facilitate help-seeking from professional mental health practitioners [53]. Some carers in the present study were not aware of peer support groups; therefore, greater awareness of such groups and their availability in rural and remote regions could reduce caregiver burden.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 50%

Caring for someone with cancer in rural Australia

Gunn

Weeks

Spronk

et al. 2022

Support Care Cancer

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Purpose To explore the experiences of people caring for someone with cancer, while living in rural Australia, and the impact of the cancer-caring role on their well-being. Method Eighteen adults in regional or remote (‘rural’) Australia who cared for a person with cancer took part in semi-structured telephone interviews. Participants were aged 32–77 years and mainly female (66%). Data were analysed using thematic analysis and an essentialist approach. Results Eight themes were identified: (1) travel is hard, but supports are available; (2) frustration with systems that do not demonstrate understanding of the rural context; (3) the importance of lay and peer support; (4) the impact of access to trusted, local health care services; (5) the importance of access to rurally relevant information (particularly on relevant services and what to expect); (6) living with uncertainty and balancing loss with hope; (7) reluctance to seek or accept psychological support; and (8) the gendered nature of care. Conclusion Rural cancer carers’ roles can be made easier by improving health systems and coordination to ease the burden of travel, providing information about available support and what to expect throughout cancer treatment that is relevant to the rural context, and increasing access to quality health, community, and support services, including palliative care, in rural areas. More training on the specific needs of rural patients and their carers is needed for urban health care professionals. Peer support groups may have particular value for cancer carers in rural settings, where there are known to be multiple barriers to accessing professional sources of psychosocial support.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 50%

Caring for someone with cancer in rural Australia

Gunn

Weeks

Spronk

et al. 2022

Support Care Cancer

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“…Peer support service models have demonstrated effectiveness in a variety of settings (Lloyd-Evans et al, 2014 ; White et al, 2020 ) including supported employment settings (Kern et al, 2013 ), when engaging difficult to reach populations, namely, individuals living in rural areas (Cheesmond et al, 2020 ); and in supporting the management of specific mental health conditions; for example, substance use disorders (Humphreys et al, 2004 ), borderline personality disorders (Barr et al, 2020 ), and severe mental illnesses (Davidson et al, 2012 ; Fan et al, 2018 ; Fortuna et al, 2020 ). Reviews and qualitative research support these findings of effectiveness and highlight the potential for peer support services to achieve recovery outcomes to the same degree as those seen in traditional mental health services.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Longitudinal Qualitative Analysis of the Way Peer Support Specialist Roles Change Over Time in a Psychiatric Hospital Setting in Asia

Poremski

Kuek

Yuan

et al. 2021

Adm Policy Ment Health

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The current study seeks to determine how peer support roles change as peer support specialists’ positions within organizations and departments mature. We followed ten peer support specialists over the course of a year, interviewing them at three points, starting approximately three months after they began working as peer support specialists. We used an inductive process to analyze our data and followed guidelines on the structuring of longitudinal qualitative trajectories to divide the data into watershed moments. Our participants worked in a variety of departments in the hospital, and their service use experiences generally echo those of their service users. Participants appear to pass through four phases over the course of their employment as peers: early beginnings, establishing the role, role narrowing, and role sustainability. Services wishing to integrate new peers must be aware of the time required for integration. Having general job descriptions limited to specifying that peers are expected to use their lived experience to support current service users may lead to uncertainty amongst new and existing staff. Without role clarity, peers may struggle to find their place. Pairing new staff with mentors may limit this burden. As roles consolidate, boundaries may emerge. If these boundaries narrow the role of the PSS, they may no longer find the role appealing. They may then choose other caregiver roles with wider or different spheres of influence. Organizations may benefit by clearly indicating if they expect peer support positions to be static or transitionary.

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“…Cheesmond et al . (2020) comment that rural health providers need to understand how a community they are invested in works and how trust can be improved but makes no further comment on achieving this. Stewart et al .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An integrated review of the barriers and facilitators for accessing and engaging with mental health in a rural setting

Ferris‐Day

Hoare

Wilson

et al. 2021

Int J Mental Health Nurs

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The review investigated the barriers and facilitators associated with assessing and engaging with mental health in a rural setting. The aim is to describe and synthesize the literature that examines the experiences of adults who access or attempt to access mental health services in rural settings. A systematic search from 2010 to 2020 was conducted using CINAHL, PsycINFO, Web of Science Core Collection, PubMed, Psychology and Behavioural Sciences Collection, Google Scholar, and Scopus. PRISMA protocols located 32 relevant papers from the overall 573 first selected. Braun and Clarke (Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3:77–101, 2006) thematic analysis methodology was applied to the data resulting in two themes: first theme identified help‐seeking with subthemes of stigma and locality of health services. The second theme was connectedness, inclusive of subthemes of support systems and personal identity. The review identified gender‐related perspectives concerning accessing mental health support, exposing the need for more research to examine the diverse social connections and support networks in rural communities. The findings suggest the need to further explore the impediments that reduce the likelihood of accessing mental health services in rural communities.

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The role of the peer support worker in increasing rural mental health help‐seeking

Cited by 14 publications

References 5 publications

Caring for someone with cancer in rural Australia

Caring for someone with cancer in rural Australia

A Longitudinal Qualitative Analysis of the Way Peer Support Specialist Roles Change Over Time in a Psychiatric Hospital Setting in Asia

An integrated review of the barriers and facilitators for accessing and engaging with mental health in a rural setting

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