Empathy and understanding in mental health: the role of a peer support worker
Emily, a senior peer support worker at Haven, explains the vital role peer support workers play in supporting people through mental health crisis.
Our commissioned report, Outcomes for mental health services, considers the difficulties in measuring outcomes in mental health services, and calls for consensus between health care professionals and service users on what outcomes actually matter.
When I started at Haven, a crisis support service based in Bradford, it was actually the first paid job I’d had since I was 17, so it was a massive step for me. I’ve struggled with mental health issues since I was young and was a frequent visitor to accident and emergency as a young adult, as well as spending time as an inpatient at Lynfield Mount Hospital.
I had no access to any kind of peer support workers in Bradford when I was younger and think peer support could have really helped. At the time I asked my psychiatrist if I’d ever get any better. He just looked at me, shook his head and said, ‘No, this is probably the best it’s going to get for you’. To be told that at 18 was devastating and it took away any hope I had for a better future. If I’d been able to meet a peer support worker at the time, I wouldn’t have lost as much hope. It would have helped me see there was some way out of where I was stuck.
When I got the role as a peer support worker in Haven I was so excited but, I guess, absolutely terrified, too. Working in such a supportive team really helped me gain so much confidence and I started to saying yes to opportunities when they arose. This led to me becoming the first senior peer support worker at Haven and gave me the opportunity to really help shape a peer-led service that offers something different for the people we work with.
I often get asked ‘What is peer support?’ There are, of course, lots of different types of peer support in the community, like Alcoholics Anonymous and post-natal support groups, and generally peer support is about building a relationship based on mutuality, reciprocity and shared experience. At Haven and in the other places our peer support workers are now working, we mostly use one-to-one peer support to help people in mental health crisis.
I don’t know of any other roles where you are expected – it's actually a part of the job description – to share on a daily basis what were potentially some of the most distressing parts of your life. And often to share these with complete strangers. But that’s what peer support workers do, we learn to read the situation quickly and accurately, weigh up if self-disclosure is going to be helpful and how to do this safely whilst offering empathy and creating a safe non-judgmental space.
We like to think that the peer support at Haven promotes a trauma-informed way of working. Instead of asking ‘What’s wrong with you?’ we learn to ask ‘What happened to you?’ We listen to the story behind the distress; give the person the time needed to articulate what they think has led them into crisis. Or the space to think about it alongside someone who isn’t judging them, who isn’t making notes, who’s been there.
The benefits of peer support in acute settings
From doing the ENRICH programme (which aims to enhance service user's experience of discharge from inpatient to community mental health care) we have seen how peer support on discharge from hospital has been helpful. It has long been acknowledged that discharge from an inpatient psychiatric ward can be a difficult time for many people as people are often going back to the same situation that led to their distress in the first place. Peer support workers can work with the person before discharge and continue this support by helping them prepare, understanding the worries about returning home because the support worker has often been in that situation ourselves. We understand that however chaotic the ward can appear it feels safe, and to be thrown out of a place of safety can feel devastating and extremely unsettling.
I would like to see peer support workers on hospital wards – as are they are in other trusts – and across all mental health services in Bradford. Having peer support workers who can help people but also share their own experiences in these settings inspires hope; hope that things can change and that there is a future that is worth trying to get to. And I believe that we also provide benefits other staff. We are tangible proof that people can move forwards, even after having debilitating mental health problems. This can help staff see that what they say and do in all their different roles can help change people’s lives.
I am biased – I do love peer support. l love the connections it can create, the shared learning it brings and how it changes people’s lives. I’d like to end with a quote from a Haven client who had attended Haven for one-to-one support in crisis, and then moved on to our crisis peer support group.
I started the peer support group. I didn’t want to go to the group because it came after I'd had a really bad day and experience at another service. I woke up thinking that it won’t help me, but I forced myself. I remember walking into the group and thinking I had nothing in common with these people, that I shouldn't be there.
But I was so wrong, it was such a powerful session, we were such a diverse group and it was the first day I felt hope. I went on Instagram straight after the group and said, ‘this is the day it starts. I’ve found what I need to do, and this is the thing that will help me’.
I phoned my mum on the way home and told her, it was so powerful. You hear people tell stories about what changed their life and this was it for me. Peer support is it, it changed my life.
This blog was originally published on the Cellar Trust website.