What happens when peer support workers are introduced as members of community-based clinical mental health service delivery teams: a qualitative study

Ehrlich, Carolyn; Slattery, Maddy; Vilic, Gabrielle; Chester, Polly; Crompton, David

doi:10.1080/13561820.2019.1612334

Cited by 38 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…She decided on her level of engagement in the study and chose tasks that would complement her interests and skillset. In a qualitative review by Ehrlich et al [ 50 ], the authors explain for there to be successful integration of inter-professional teams, it is essential for clinical staff to understand the unique contributions of PWLE in healthcare settings. AA was highly encouraged to voice her opinions and ideas during case reviews.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Engaging a person with lived experience of mental illness in a collaborative care model feasibility study

et al. 2021

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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.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Engaging a person with lived experience of mental illness in a collaborative care model feasibility study

et al. 2021

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“…Consumer peer workers also express benefitting from providing peer support, including enhanced self-awareness and self-esteem [31][32][33][34]. In addition, mental health professionals describe how consumer peer workers provide organizations with a unique expertise of their journey through the mental health system which can add credibility to services [28,35].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using peer workers with lived experience to support the treatment of borderline personality disorder: a qualitative study of consumer, carer and clinician perspectives

Barr

Townsend

Grenyer

2020

bord personal disord emot dysregul

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Background: Peer support is a recovery oriented approach where consumers and carers are introduced to people with lived experience of the disorder who have recovered. Paid roles within health services for such consumer peer workers and carer peer workers (or 'specialists') are increasingly common. To date specific studies on such peer support for consumers with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and their carers has not been conducted. Methods: This qualitative study used interviews to explore perceptions and models of peer support for BPD from the perspectives of 12 consumers, 12 carers, and 12 mental health professionals. Participant responses were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis within a phenomenological methodology. Results: All groups described how consumer peer workers may provide hope, connection, and validation to a consumer's lived experience. Offering both traditional mental health treatment plus peer support, and giving consumers choice regarding a consumer peer worker was welcomed. Differences in opinion were found regarding the consumer peer worker's role in relation to the mental health team, including whether consumer peer workers should access medical records. Perspectives differed regarding the consumer peer worker and carer peer worker positions, highlighting potential role confusion. Carers discussed the value of receiving support from carer peer workers and consumer peer workers. Mental health professionals described how consumer peer workers can experience workplace stigma and problems with boundary setting, and acknowledged a need for peer workers to be valued by having a duty of care and confidentiality code to follow and be offered supervision. Conclusions: Two models of peer support for BPD emerged: an integrated model where consumer peer workers work within the mental health team, and a complementary model where consumer peer workers are separate from the mental health team. Based on these findings we provide recommendations for services to help support such peer work for consumers with BPD and their carers.

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“…Indeed, research has tended to describe the process and value of obtaining legitimacy within a particular nexus of power relations (Ehrlich et al . , Friedson ), often failing to explicitly recognise the effortful labour involved in this legitimisation. Elicitation of this labour, which can entail proving value against a criterion established by other professionals, has the potential for unintended and even harmful consequences.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inter‐professional practice in the prevention and management of child and adolescent self‐harm: foster carers’ and residential carers’ negotiation of expertise and professional identity

Jennings

Evans

2020

Sociology Health & Illness

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Inter-professional collaboration remains a significant concern within healthcare and social care. However, there has been scant attention paid to practices at the interface of clinicians and carers, namely foster carers and residential carers. The present study considers child and adolescent self-harm management and prevention practices as a site of empirical interest due to reports that multi-agency teams are not effectively operating. Drawing upon a grounded theory approach, data were generated via semi-structured interviews and focus groups with residential carers (n = 15) and foster carers (n = 15) in Wales. Themes were developed through axial coding. The results present two central themes to explain the nature and perceived causes of inter-professional discord. First, there are clear contestations in expertise, with carers challenging clinicians' propositional knowledge in favour of their own experiential expertise. However, participants simultaneously endorse medical dominance, which contributes to their sense of disempowerment and marginalisation. Second, is the preclusion of carers' professional identity, primarily due to inadequate professionalisation procedures. Meanwhile, the privileging of their parenting role is perceived to support the perpetuation of courtesy stigma. Carers are then compelled to undertake the effortful labour of legitimisation. Together these thematic insights provide direction on mechanisms to improve inter-professional interactions, notably around training and accreditation.

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What happens when peer support workers are introduced as members of community-based clinical mental health service delivery teams: a qualitative study

Cited by 38 publications

References 38 publications

Engaging a person with lived experience of mental illness in a collaborative care model feasibility study

Engaging a person with lived experience of mental illness in a collaborative care model feasibility study

Using peer workers with lived experience to support the treatment of borderline personality disorder: a qualitative study of consumer, carer and clinician perspectives

Inter‐professional practice in the prevention and management of child and adolescent self‐harm: foster carers’ and residential carers’ negotiation of expertise and professional identity

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