NEW RESOURCE: Understanding Peer Support: A Proposed Core Service in Ontario (attached document below)
In the Fall of 2021, Support House Centre for Innovation in Peer Support identified the need to further support and build the capacity of supervisors of peer support services. We began revising our supervisor training and throughout the process a number of areas requiring clarity related to the current context and understanding of peer support were brought to the forefront.
The journey of peer support, from consumer survivor initiatives to the implementation, and integration of peer supporters within formal systems of care as providers has left us with various definitions of peer support, interpretations of the role, and varying approaches to care. Without clarity, those who choose to implement peer support, work in peer support and those who choose to engage with peer supports have different expectations of conduct, ethics and service delivery.
As part of the Centre’s ongoing quality improvement, knowledge brokerage, and capacity-building efforts this resource was created, compiling research and our “lessons learned” from running communities of practice, providing consultations and leading engagement for over 7 years. This was done with the recognition that in 2020 Ontario identified peer support as a proposed core service in their Roadmap to Wellness.
About the Centre:
Centre for Innovation in Peer Support (Centre) is embedded in Support House. The Centre promotes & facilitates the meaningful engagement, empowerment and enhanced capacities of people with lived experience and families, as well as effective peer support services regionally, provincially, nationally and internationally. Support House’s Centre for Innovation in Peer Support provides tools and resources to facilitate peer-support program implementation, capacity-building, evaluation, research, knowledge brokerage, and quality improvement.
The Centre’s Provincial, Systems & Partner stream continues to evolve, listening to input from our stakeholders across the province, and using QI processes to pivot, pilot, evaluate and then scale and spread; we have been able to identify gaps and needs within the system. Our full programing is offered through our Virtual Learning Centre & Resource Hub which support the most current, best practices in Peer Support. Through our Virtual Learning Centre, we offer trainings, consultation, our Peer Professional Development webinar series, and provincial communities of practice. Our Resource Hub is home to our toolkits, models, and resources. These offerings support the practice and implementation of Peer Support within Ontario.
Visit our Virtual Learning Centre & Resource Hub at link below:
https://supporthouse.ca/resour...l-systems-resources/