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Inventory Resources and Risks for Recovery
Published in Sandra Rasmussen, Developing Competencies for Recovery, 2023
Peer support workers are people who have been successful in the recovery process who help others experiencing similar situations. Through shared understanding, respect, and mutual empowerment, peer support workers help people become and stay engaged in the recovery process and reduce the likelihood of relapse. Peer support services can effectively extend the reach of treatment beyond the clinical setting into the everyday environment of those seeking a successful, sustained recovery process.
Personal Health Engagement
Published in Salvatore Volpe, Health Informatics, 2022
Peer support seems to be effective not just as a way of increasing coping and self-management skills, but also as an aid to behavior change. Peer support has been demonstrated to be effective in everything from smoking cessation to diabetes management and weight loss. A meta-analysis published in February of 2014 concluded, “This review offers preliminary evidence that social networking-based health interventions may be effective in changing behavior.”70 In 2019, a study indicated that participation in an online community positively impacted individual PAM scores, with the greatest amount of change in PAM scores occurring among the least-activated patients.71
Emotional and Practical Needs in Postpartum Women
Published in Rosa Maria Quatraro, Pietro Grussu, Handbook of Perinatal Clinical Psychology, 2020
Wendy Davis, Kimberly McCue, Brenda Papierniak, Christena Raines, Lita Simanis
Peer support can be categorized as both informal and formal depending on how it is delivered. One version of formal peer support would be peer support that is provided by a peer specialist. A study specific to peer specialists in PPD that included home visits for 12 weeks showed no better results for those receiving the home-based peer support than controls (Letourneau et al., 2011). Similar results for lay person home visits were seen by Morrell et al. (2000), where the addition of home visits by a community support worker had no protective effect on PPD. However, more research is needed in this area for the perinatal period, as peer specialists have been shown to have positive impacts for other mental health diagnoses (Solomon, 2004).
Use of the Operational Stress Injury Social Support (OSISS) Program in a Nationally Representative Sample of Canadian Active Duty Military Personnel
Published in Military Behavioral Health, 2022
S. Duranceau, A. Angehrn, M. A. Zamorski, R. N. Carleton
The Operational Stress Injury Social Support (OSISS) network was initiated in Canada in 2001 and is one of the most comprehensive recovery-oriented peer support programs developed for military populations (Money et al., 2011; Jain et al., 2013). OSISS peer support providers (i.e., Peer Support Coordinator) have personal experience with an operational stress injury (e.g., PTSD), but are further along in recovery than the persons receiving their peer support (Grenier et al., 2007). The peer support provider is encouraged to share their experience with the injury, especially the skills, strengths, and resources used in their own personal recovery. Peer support providers are trained by professional mental health providers in active listening, problem solving, and crisis management and considered to be an integral part of the mental health services team. OSISS is primarily designed to help instigate professional mental health service utilization but can also serve as an adjunct to professional mental health care (Grenier et al., 2007; Hundt et al., 2015). OSISS is accessible to both current CAF members and veterans, which can help facilitate continuity of care when transitioning from military to civilian life (Grenier et al., 2007; Money et al., 2011). OSISS has unique features and advantages (Grenier et al., 2007; Money et al., 2011); however, very little is known about its use by CAF members (Department of National Defense & Veterans Affairs Canada, 2005), and use of military peer support programs more broadly.
College students’ intentions to assist peers with chronic medical conditions
Published in Journal of American College Health, 2022
Russell D. Ravert, Luke T. Russell
Although students have cited peer relations and social support as important resources to cope with those challenges,7 research finds that they can experience social isolation.8 Peer support is important not only for psychological coping with health conditions, but also as a factor in self-management, through mechanisms including reduced stress, increased confidence, and improved mental health.9 Research has distinguished between different types of peer support, including instrumental support (e.g., providing medical assistance in an emergency), and emotional support (e.g., communicating care and comfort).10 Youth with chronic conditions have described the value of having “informed friends” who provide both types of support.11,12
Disaster mental health: remembering the past, shaping the future
Published in International Review of Psychiatry, 2021
Survivors of disaster, including first responders and healthcare workers, likely see themselves as ‘normal individuals who are trying to adjust to extreme hardship’ (Lima et al., 1989, p. 74). As a result, they may see mental health providers as offering services that are unneeded and, perhaps because of stigma, undesired. Thus, they may seek psychological support from those whom they know, trust, or otherwise feel some connection. Friends, family, co-workers, and faith-based leadership are examples of those who might be approached more naturally for support in the wake of adversity. These ‘peer support’ programs can represent viable alternatives to the provision of acute mental health services. Arising from the community mental health movement of the 1960s, peer support may be thought of as the utilisation of anyone specially trained specifically in the provision of acute psychological support (typically psychological first aid and its derivatives), but who do not possess professional level training, certification, or licensure in one of the mental health disciplines.