Peer support among individuals with severe mental illness: A review of the evidence.

Abstract

This article reviews the history and potential effectiveness of peer support among persons with severe mental illness. Following a historical overview, we describe the three primary forms of peer support that have been developed t o date by and for this population, and examine the existing empirical evidence of the feasibility, effectiveness, and utilization of each of these approaches in contributing t o the recovery of individuals with psychiatric disabiliies. These three forms are (1) naturally occumng mutual support groups, (2) consumer-run senices, and (3) the employment of consumers as providers within clinical and rehabilitative settings. Existing studies of mutual support groups suggest that they may improve symptoms, promote larger social networkr, and enhance quality of life. This research is largely from uncontrolled studies, however, and will need t o be evaluated further using prospective, controlled designs. Consumer-run services and the use of consumers as providers promise t o broaden the access of individuals with psychiatric disabilities t o peer support, but research on these more recent developments is only preliminary and largely limited t o demonstrations of their feasibility. We discuss issues entailed in participating in peer support for this population, and then close with a discussion of the implications for future policy, research, and practice.

Quality of life and illness beliefs in individuals with early psychosis

“…There is a clear need for future studies to examine other psychosocial influences of QoL in early psychosis, such as global assessment of functioning and the size and quality of the individual's social support network. This suggestion is consistent with recent findings of improvements in reported QoL following psychosocial interventions which target these outcomes, such as peer support programmes [9], and specialist vocational interventions [25]. Nevertheless, the findings from this study using an early psychosis sample support the SRM in showing that beliefs about mental health are associated with significant variation in appraisal of outcome (i.e.…”

“…This suggests the need to consider refining psychological interventions, such as Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, to enhance outcome in the first episode, for example, by identifying and challenging negative illness-related appraisals, including illness beliefs about control, negative consequences and emotional responses to illness. In addition, given the interest in QoL as an indicator of recovery in psychosis [26], helping individuals to recover hope, redefine their identity and find meaning in life [1] should be key targets for clinicians, and could form part of psychosocial [9,25] and peer interventions [5]. This is consistent with current guidelines for intervention in early psychosis [26], and ongoing health service agendas to empower patients, engender optimism and promote recovery [11].…”

Transportations of space, time and self: the role of reading groups in managing mental distress in the community

“…One strength of peer support has often been noted to be the practice of making experiences which may be viewed as 'abnormal' in everyday life become 'normal' within a group which share those experiences (Davidson et al, 1999;Romme & Escher, 1993). More generally, positive…”

“…In addition, bibliotherapy is usually a lone pursuit, and though it can sometimes make the reader feel less alone, in some cases it may serve to exacerbate issues of isolation and loneliness (Chase, 2011, Repper & Perkins, 2003. For this reason, therapeutic reading groups have been set up, which aim to combine the benefits of peer support groups (Davidson et al, 1999), with the potentials of fiction reading for exploring and imagining experiences of distress.…”

Innovative patientenzentrierte Versorgungssysteme

“…Heute wird der Peer-Involvement-Ansatz, der über eine lange Tradition verfügt [28], vermehrt angewandt, was letztlich auch die Bedeutung der Selbsthilfearbeit unterstreicht [35]. Nach Davidson et al [12] kön-nen verschiedene Kategorien von PeerArbeit unterschieden werden. Im Einzelnen lassen sich "peer support" (Unterstützung von Betroffenen durch Peers), "mutual support" (gegenseitige Unterstützung von Betroffenen) und "peer-run services" (Mitwirkung an professionellen Hilfsangeboten für Betroffene) voneinander abgrenzen.…”