HOW PEER SUPPORT IS DIFFERENT FROM OTHER SERVICES

1
HOW PEER SUPPORT IS DIFFERENT FROM OTHER SERVICES

• PEER SUPPORT IS
• Being open to new ways of thinking about our
  experience
• Re-defining help and helping
• A way of thinking about relationships and power
  that is mutual
• Mutually supportive and mutually responsible
• Teaching and learning from each other
• An opportunity to challenge the status quo
• About recovery and
  transformation

2
Peer Support is

• Assuming that there are MANY ways to understand
  an experience
• Building STRONG CONNECTIONS through SHARED
  EXPERIENCES therefore creating more TRUST and
  HOPE
• Considering the effects of TRAUMA and ABUSE on
  peoples SELF-CONCEPT and RELATIONSHIPS
• Building TRUST and HOPE so people can feel SAFE
  taking more risks
• SUPPORTING and CHALLENGING each other to
  
• GROW and CHANGE

3

• PEER SUPPORT IS NOT
• An expert telling you what your experience
  means
• Telling someone what to do
• Superficial power down relationships
• Telling you youre sick and socially unacceptable
• One way relationships where one person takes
  responsibility for the other
• Being told or learning about diagnosis and
  treatment
• Protecting people from taking risks that are
  considered too stressful
• About stability and maintenance

4
Language and the Power of Words(Peer Support vs
Medical Model)

• Instead of
• Chronic
• Crisis
• Symptoms
• High/low functioning
• Manipulative
• Acting out
• My client
• Mentally ill
• Decompensate
• Non-compliant
• Treatment resistant

• Saying
• In recovery
• Intensity
• Experiences/big feelings
• Having a bad/good day
• Strategic
• Feeling frustrated
• People I work with
• Feeling different than others
• Having a bad day
• Not in agreement with me
• Considering other options
• Doing something that
• scares me

5
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• When we as Peers validate each other for our
  personhood rather than our patienthood, it
  leads us to see each others behavior through the
  lens of personal experience rather than through
  the lens of illness.
• AND FINALLY.PEER SUPPORT offers a culture of
  HEALTH and ABILITY as opposed to a culture
• of ILLNESS and DISABILITY