Informality, advocacy and the sharing of lived experience in peer support work

Remote and Digitally Delivered Mental Health Support for Care-Experienced Young People: Some Practice-Based Reflections in Response to Cummings (2023)

“…In relation to this, one issue we reflected on (and wrote about) was professional selfdisclosure, i.e., the act of the professional revealing information about their personal identity or lived experience to those they are seeking to help (Archard et al 2023a(Archard et al , 2023b. These sorts of disclosures tended, we found, to occur with greater frequency working online during the pandemic, such as when informing young people, parents, and carers about changes in scheduling due to illness in one's family or having to take leave for other personal commitments.…”

“…However, this can lead to their views being overlooked in planning the development of care pathways. We found that directly involving a peer support worker in the service evaluation described was beneficial in ensuring young people's views were gathered (Archard et al 2022d(Archard et al , 2023b.…”

“…The reflections we share here arose out of conversations (most often via videoconferencing and telephone) and email correspondence we had with each other during this time. Evaluative work we carried out informed service development at a local level, but we also sought to report the findings to a wider audience (see Archard et al 2021Archard et al , 2022aArchard et al , 2022bArchard et al , 2022cArchard et al , 2022dArchard et al , 2023aArchard et al , 2023b.…”