Peer Support 101

April 11, 2008

Editor's note: This is the first in a series of articles about Peer Support Specialists.

For those not paying attention, Peer Support Specialists have been a part of the mental health field and a key part of recovery from mental illness for quite some time now.

"Peer support is about understanding another’s situation empathically through the shared experience of emotional and psychological pain," says Jill SanJule of the Mental Health Transformation Project in a presentation on improving employment outcomes using peer support services [ Portable Document Format 291KB].

"We know that recovery occurs along a 'change continuum,'" she goes on. "Peers are especially adept at moving folks along this continuum by offering hope, inspiration, and living proof that recovery is not just possible, but probable with the right supports."

So what is a Peer Support Specialist?

What is a Peer Support Specialist?

According to a Wikipedia entry, it's someone "who has progressed in their own recovery from mental illness" and can now offer professional services to mental health consumers. "Because of their life experience [Peer Support Specialists] provide expertise that professional training cannot replicate."

As SanJule notes above, the key is that Peer Support Specialists not only connect with consumers, they also offer hope that things can get better – because they have been in many of the same situations, and faced many of the same challenges, as the people they are helping.

Phyllis Solomon of the University of Pennsylvania, a widely respected authority in this area for her research on clinical services and service system issues related to adults with severe mental illness and their families, makes a similar point, saying that Peer Support Specialists "are able to connect with people, particularly people who may be resistant to using treatment.

"Peers are also able to assist [consumers] in being able to utilize what might be most beneficial to them," she goes on. "And in how to really use the system. I mean, some of these systems are very difficult systems to use."

And the good news? It's working. "Research shows that peer support yields improvement in psychiatric symptoms and decreased hospitalization, larger social support networks, and enhanced self-esteem and social functioning," says SanJule. "It also improves communication with providers—that is, individuals report an easier time communicating with their doctor and clinical team as partners."

The Helper Therapy Principle

So what's in it for Peer Support Specialists? Besides the benefits of a rewarding career path – one that only in recent years has begun to open for them – there is also the beneficial therapeutic side effect known as the Helper Therapy Principle. That simply means that the Peer Support Specialist doesn't only help someone else. In the process, they also boost their own self-confidence and self-esteem, making the relationship mutually beneficial.

"Helping is therapeutic," says SanJule. "The person who is helping benefits as much as the person being helped."

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