Peer Support is one of the projects in the Community Mental Health and Addiction workstream of the Mental Health and Addiction Change Programme. The project team is proud of the work taking place to ensure greater options for care for tāngata whaiora by understanding, strengthening and growing the peer support workforce.
Effectively and sustainably embedding peer support takes specialist knowledge and education for both peer support workers and clinical teams. The Peer Support project team is working to establish a consistent level of understanding within clinical and support teams, as well as a consistent level of peer support across teams.
To help achieve this, the team has partnered with the kaiako of the Health & Wellbeing Certificate – Peer Support Level 4 at tertiary education institute Whitireia. Whitireia is designing bespoke training for MHAIDS clinical team members, complementing the Peer Support Level 4 training required of peer support workers in MHAIDS teams.
MHAIDS has also developed a Peer Support Statement, which together with the research and competencies from Te Pou, helps anchor this mahi. The statement defines what MHAIDS expects peer support workers will and will not do. It provides a standard level of expectations for peer support provided through MHAIDS that both the clinical teams and NGO partners will adhere to.
Other peer support work happening outside MHAIDS
The project team is supported by a rōpū of lived experience, Māori, Pacific, Disability and MHAIDS advisors. Together the rōpū makes decisions about what should happen in their area to understand, strengthen and grow peer support. They are going about this by:
Reviewing commissioning insights to help understand how peer support is delivered across the different NGO providers in the Capital, Coast and Hutt Valley area, and what the supports and barriers are for each.
Developing a plan that seeks to strengthen the environment through targeted activities for peer support delivery, creating a thriving peer support community ready for new investment and growth in the next financial years.
Establishing communities of practice with Whitireia, open to:
- all peer support workers in the area
- all clinical team leaders and members of teams with peer support workers.
This month will see an end to the first phase of the approach to Understand, Strengthen and Grow peer support. We will be saying goodbye to the project leads Vic Parsons (pictured above left) and Chontelle King (pictured above right), as the work moves into a new phase.
Please reach out to Suzie Baird (pictured above centre) or Chontelle if you’d like to talk about this mahi in more detail.
