Lived Experience Forum

[Daisydreamer]

@Longingtobelong so glad to hear you are training in peer support! We need passionate people like you 🙂

@Zoe7 and @Shaz51 you are so right- we are all doing peer support on the forums! The words shared experience, knowledge, empathy and equal power are what it's all about

@greenspace welcome! Hoping you are staying warm on this cold evening

[Daisydreamer]

Spot on @Adge 🙂 You would be an amazing peer support worker

[Former-Member]

@Ophelia for myself, I needed to have come a certain way in my own recovery before I was able to safely and effectively take on a peer supporter role. 

I like how it is worded here:

[Daisydreamer]

It sounds like we have all come back to similar words and themes; peer support is based on shared experiences, and is about a mutual relationship and connection. There's a shared power in the relationships that peer support builds, where we can all learn and grow together. 

@HappyCastle Q2: What makes peer support different to other types of mental health supports?

[Zoe7]

With peer support we have a knowledge that who we are connecting with has also been through similar experiences and understand much of what we are dealing with. Empathy therefore is personally acquired through mutual understanding and a shared knowledge of the reality we are in.

[HappyCastle]

Q2: What makes peer support different to other types of mental health supports?

Peer support is a really unique approach as it’s entirely non-clinical.

Unlike other mental health supports, a mutual lived experience of mental health challenges is the crucial part of peer support and that’s what makes it so powerful.

Having that interaction with people who are at a place in their recovery journeys where they are able to support others provides hope and empowerment to people who may be struggling.

It truly embeds recovery-orientation practice into and is completely person-centred, supporting people to plan their own recovery - I love it!

[Longingtobelong]

Thanks so much @Daisydreamer. Very much looking forward to it!

[Adge]

Hi @Former-Member I'm Glad to see you too.

& @Shaz51 & @Zoe7 & @HappyCastle 

Including everyone who I haven't mentioned...

Thanks @Daisydreamer Very Heartwarming, what you said.

My working with & mentoring people in Disabilities/ Community Support work - has been similar to Peer Support.

Yet without the MH Focus/ perspective.

Adge

[Former-Member]

@Former-Member @chibam the discussion is happening here - can you see it ok? 

[Zoe7]

@Former-Member Join in here