(July2023) Peer Support Workers

Home
(July2023) Peer Support Workers

‘‘We would like to ask whether other secure services have experience of successfully employing peer support workers. If so:

What does their role involve in terms of day to day tasks?

What are particularly valued aspects of their role and what are the challenges?

If there were any unsuccessful employments, what was learned from that experience?

If other services feel that they can share an example of person spec/job description, generally, any learnings or advice, it would much appreciated.’’

We have just appointed two peer support workers and we await the long recruitment process to be completed and they are hopefully starting soon. There are jobs out there with job descriptions attached which are worth looking at. Wathwood Hospital, Respondent 1

At Wathwood, we have followed the model that was successful in our other medium secure hospital in Trust, Arnold Lodge, in that the posts sit with the occupational therapy service. We have an established peer support service within Trust and there is an identified link person from this team to provide supervision and support in addition to what I will provide as their line manager, which I feel is very important. Having recently done IMROCs peer supervision training, this was something that was discussed a lot and highlighted as being important. Although not yet in post, day to day their main role will be offering 1:1 peer support to patients on the wards (recovery focused conversations, goal setting etc). They will also support involvement and the recovery college at Wathwood. For me, a challenge, given that peer support is something new here at Wathwood is how we educate both patients and staff about peer support and the role of a peer support worker. The Trust peer support team are helping with this and we have some sessions planned in where they will come and talk about the role. Wathwood Hospital, Respondent 2