Live It Well is working with KMPT and voluntary sector organisations in Kent and Medway to promote peer workers within mental health services. People with lived experience working and supporting others have been used in other areas of health and social care.

Research has stated that people with lived in experience can provide valuable support to a service user in unique ways such as:

• Non medical view/time to really listen to what’s important
• Shared understanding
• Honesty
• Relationship vs engagement
• Personal experience/offers hope
• Enthusiasm and energy/motivation
• Unique individual’s

Peer workers could be used to:

• Work with service users individually as requested by team
• Co facilitate support groups as required
• To assist and advise individuals in how to better manage their own mental health on a day to day basis
• Positive promotion of Recovery linking with community resources
• To support staff with discharge and moving on from services
• Contribute in handover and team meetings
• Bring a different perspective
• Accurate oral and written accounts for the team
• To work with staff and alongside service users who want help to think about their recovery plans and advanced care plans

Are you a service user interested in gaining work experience within KMPT maybe their Job Taster Programme is suitable for you? To find out more about this click here.

KMPT have also published a paper about Valuing Peer Support which you can access by clicking here.

IMROC – Experiences of Peer Support Work

IMROC (Implementing Recovery through Organisational Change) have been promoting peer working in mental health and have gathered some videos of experiences of peer workers which you can see by clicking here. (this will open up a new window).

You can find out more about the work that imroc are doing by clicking here.

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