Peer Support is a way of sharing our common humanity. As the quotation shows the important words are ‘respect’ ‘responsibility’ and ‘mutual’. These are all values we share, not things we do on our own. This is not a new concept, people in recovery from mental health problems have always shared their experience of recovery and mental health to offer mutual support and learning.
Developing Peer Support
SRN have been supporting peer working as a way of making recovery real in mental health services. Peer support workers are trained and employed to support other people in recovery. To be a peer support worker you must have your own recovery experience.
As part of our commitment we are working with the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) to develop accredited awards and learning materials to further support the training of future peer support workers. We are also working to develop guidelines to support the implementation of peer worker roles and will continue to offer opportunities for peer workers and managers to meet and share learning.
You can find resources about peer support, what it involves and how it relates to recovery on the ‘Supporting Resources’ section below.
How it started
SRN helped in developing Scotland's first peer support service, known as Plan2Change, which is a based in Craigmillar in Edinburgh. We were also involved in the pilot programme to employ peer support workers in a number of Health Board areas across Scotland. This pilot programme was the part of the Scottish Government's plans for mental health service improvement.
Both initiatives have been independently evaluated with reports available in 'Supporting Resources'.
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Activities and Projects 
