Steeped in history, informed and current - Peer Support
People working in the Peer Support sector draw on their own lived experience of distress and trauma, to form a trusted therapeutic relationship through which they can directly support others.
The lived experience workforce has its roots in a long history of social movements and mutual support practices. It is, by definition, “led by people using mental health services”. It was first conceived back in early 1900s France, spearheaded by the work of Philippe Pinel, a French physician who helped develop a more humane approach to the custody and care of psychiatric patients. It was seen as a way to support others, with a philosophy of patient-led alternatives to mental health services.
Lived experience roles within alcohol and drug services also grew from a practice of mutual support and a history of peer support volunteers. In Aotearoa NZ, during the 1980s public health concerns surrounding HIV/AIDS prompted the establishment of a world-leading needle exchange programme, which to this day is staffed mostly by peers.
Peer advocacy as we know it was developed within the context of these and other human rights and patient rights advocacy groups and movements, both in Aotearoa and overseas. The catchphrase of these consumer/survivor-led groups was “nothing about us without us”, and over time this passionate movement has contributed to the development of formal advisory roles within the health sector.
Today there are many roles within the mental health sector where people with lived experience use their experience to support changes in service delivery and system policy.
In an effort to standardise and grow the workforce, In 2020, Te Pou (the Mental Health and Addictions Workforce) launched a five-year strategy, followed by an action plan in 2021. The strategy sets out three high-level goals:
- the development of a leadership and partnership infrastructure to enable the lived experience, consumer and peer support workforce to be effective leaders and partners in workforce development;
- growing this workforce; and
- developing the skills and environments needed for this workforce to be effective.
The action plan is underpinned by six core values identified as pivotal for this workforce: participation, self-determination, equity, mutuality, experiential knowledge, hope and wellbeing. The Road Forward supports this work. We uphold the shared belief that there is always hope, and that recovery, resilience and wellbeing are possible for everyone.