Peer support workers
Peer support workers (PSW) roles are based on lived experience of Trust services either personally or as a carer or facilitator of someone with a mental health difficulty, learning disability or forensic mental health services. They are on a good phase of personal recovery, very knowledgeable about many different services from a personal perspective.
The peer role is explicitly a non-clinical one, which does not involve treatment, assessment or evaluation. The role gives added depth and personal perspective to what people are going through. They offer a different relationship, one of mutual understanding, which helps with the recovery and well as the involvement of people (and their carers or facilitators) in what is best for them; with experiences in common. They can support different ways to express how people are feeling and how to deal with those thoughts and feelings in a more creative and supportive approach. PSW emphasis is on the person taking control of their own lives giving them a purpose and confidence to look after themselves in a more productive and personalised manner.
Peer support workers:
- Can use their own lived experience to connect with people and help them by giving them a sense of hope and wellbeing
- Help people engage with, build connections, and feel a sense of belonging to their local communities
- Help people to gain a sense of control over their own live
- Enable people to gain satisfaction in different parts of their life
Services who have peer support workers:
- Adult ADHD and autism services
- Early intervention into Psychosis
- Inpatient wards
- Kirklees insight team
- Kirklees intensive home based treatment team
- Perinatal team
- Barnsley Recovery College
- Calderdale and Kirklees Recovery College
- Specialist community forensic team
Resources:
- Ways to wellbeing
- Calderdale insight peer support booklet
- Perinatal team information leaflet
- Intensive home based treatment
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