Navigating dual relationships in mental health care settings

Hi Lisa!

We (the Centre for Innovation in Peer Support) REALLY appreciate the help of EENet and their staff for their continued work to support the fidelity of peer support and all the work needed to get proper literature reviews to help us co-create the evidence and standards needed for high quality, values based peer support. 

An incredible amount of effort was put into this and I want to thank all involved. (particularly Lisa)

There are two other products that EENet helped us with and I have included the links here:

Promising Practice:

The Centre for Innovation in Peer Support is leading the way with a peer support service model in the Mississauga - Halton Region. EENet collaborated with the Centre for Innovation in Peer Support to highlight this promising practice that is changing the way Ontario's mental health and addiction system is viewed and functions. Learn more about this promising practice at link below:

Centre for Innovation in Peer Support: A Promising Practice

 http://eenet.ca/resource/centr...ssissauga-and-halton

Core Elements of Peer Support:

The Centre for Innovation in Peer Support (embedded in Support & Housing-Halton) requested this Evidence Brief from EENet as a means to vision forward with system transformation as a result of Peer Support Staff roles and the systems infrastructure that the Centre provides. Do you work in peer support, or are you interested to find out more about peer support programs?  Even though in recent years evidence for peer support is growing, little is known about what aspects make them successful. In this Evidence Brief, we look at the core elements of peer support programs across different health sectors such as mental health and addictions, diabetes, chronic disease and cancer.

Core elements of peer support programs

http://eenet.ca/resource/what-...eer-support-programs

Thank you, Betty-Lou! We, at EENet, feel it's our privilege to provide support to your efforts to establish standards and practices for peer support.

Hello my EENet Friends and All! Happy New Year!

This is a really useful Evidence Brief. Thank you!

Krasman Centre offers a peer support training course called Like Minds which covers most of these issues and is informed by peer support language.  I have had the pleasure of co-facilitating this training a number of times with Theresa Claxton-Wali, and this is one of my favourite modules precisely because of how muddy the work environment can become, particularly in less densely populated areas. It allows a fulsome discussion of boundaries, notions of vulnerability, friendship, mutuality and power.  I completely agree: Knowing one's role is essential, so understanding the difference between fixing and supporting, and one's role in that process, naturally evolves out of these discussions.

What does that mean? For example, there is no mention of "clients" in peer support - except to highlight the structural power imbalance contained in the term within a mental health context, and articulated in (or as) the healthcare system today and historically.  In peer support, this applies to 'worker,' or 'specialist,' too.  Peer support is not social work-lite. This is an important factor to consider when looking for any peer support-specific material, distinct from psychiatric, nursing or social work guidelines.  There is a wealth of non-academic material generated by experience that does not appear in academic journals simply because no effort has been made to publish there; we have already figured it out and are doing it.  (Sort of like fishing the Grand Banks before 1492). This material can be found in PowerPoint presentations, emails, notes from conversations, and many of the precursor-to-the-blog pieces going back decades (aka, the op-ed in papers and magazines; even manifestos going back centuries). The absence of academic credentials is not the absence of empirical principles and veracity; and this is consistent with the origins of peer support and the principles which inform its practise, which is decidedly not mainstream and involves mutual growth among participants. 

I really like the gloss on technology, as well as this statement:

"organizations have a duty to support peer workers’ mental health and well-being while keeping them engaged in the work⁶. It’s imperative that organizations consult their peer workers to tailor the supports that are offered and ensure optimal benefit for all involved.^{6 "}

This is a Brief I will frequently return to, as it helps to show how peer support resembles traditional mental health roles even while not being such an endeavour. Plus, there is a lot of really solid guidance to be taken from it!

Thank you for producing this!

Dylan

Great post Dylan!

Thanks so much for sharing your valuable expertise and insights, Dylan! I like your simile about "fishing the Grand Banks before 1492". Very on point!

Thanks for sharing that with us Dylan.

I love this part: There is a wealth of non-academic material generated by experience that does not appear in academic journals simply because no effort has been made to publish there; we have already figured it out and are doing it.

Successful knowledge exchange is about so much more than translating academic material!