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Guest blog: Holding the hope for people accessing AND working in services

It’s World Mental Health Day and we’re delighted to share this guest blog from Katy Hawkins, Trustwide Lived Experience Practice & Peer Support Lead at Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (CNWL).

Katy has her own lived experience of mental health challenges and professional experience in a range of peer roles. In this blog she explores the benefits of having Peer Workers as part of the team and the support needed to help them flourish.

Peer and lived experience workers employed within mental health services have a vital role in bridging the gap between people accessing services and staff. While the supportive relationships Peer Workers build with the individuals they support will rightly look different to those they form with their colleagues, many common elements are used to build rapport with both.

As peers, we have a perspective that isn’t the same as that of our clinical colleagues. We work in different models, with different training, and use different approaches. But crucially, we work alongside clinical staff, shoulder to shoulder, all wanting the best for those we support as well as our fellow team members.

Often people in clinical roles are taught not to talk about their personal experiences – a powerful point of human connection. Confidence can be found and built in sharing experiences with Peer Workers: in the same way we find affinity with people on their recovery journeys who are referred to services, colleagues can find it in us as people they are working alongside.

As Peer Workers, we are in roles where we are expected, encouraged, and supported to share our lived experiences. While there must of course be no onus on us to share more (both in amount and scope) than we are comfortable with, colleagues in traditionally trained roles who may feel – for any number of reasons – restricted in being open about their own difficulties can feel inspired by what we can share, as well as by seeing the positive outcomes based on us finding common ground with the people we support.

We are eradicating stigma with every telling of our stories. We are openly able to talk about what happened to us. If this shows even one non-peer colleague that it’s OK to need help with their mental health, that’s a benefit. 

Peer Workers act as role models for not just recovery, but recovery-focused working. Colleagues in services can feel burnt out, the often-cited ‘revolving door’ of people repeatedly needing support making it seem that nothing changes, no one gets better, so what’s the point? This doesn’t mean that staff don’t continue to try their best, but that it can take a toll on them, that there can be more taxes on their passion for their work than there are rewards.

When working in services where people are often at their lowest ebb, being able to look at Peer Workers and see that recovery is not only possible, but sustainable, that we can not only fall down seven times, not only get up eight, but at the eighth have the fortitude and will to come back to the environments we recovered in (or in spite of), has to be impactful. We hold the hope for people in services: this doesn’t just mean people accessing them, but people working in them as well.

It’s imperative Peer Workers have good support

Of course, it’s not easy to hold the hope for people accessing services, colleagues, services, and organisations, all the while navigating our own recovery journeys, drawing on our previous experiences, sometimes re-encountering our personal traumas. It’s imperative that Peer Workers have good support in their roles to be able to hold all of this. At a minimum, Peer Workers need a space to reflect with others who have been or are still in similar roles.

Ideally, Peer Workers shouldn’t have to sit in isolation as the only one in their team, and if that’s the case, they should be able to access regular opportunities to connect with others. Peer Workers should receive training: no other role in healthcare would be expected to do skilled work if they haven’t been given the tools to do it.

Peer Workers should be paid – a somewhat controversial stance, but it is skilled work and should be recognised and compensated. And for a Peer Worker to truly flourish in a team, they need understanding and acceptance of their role and the value it brings from their colleagues: an appreciation from others of their contribution to multidisciplinary teams.

A recovery-focused service is one in which peer work can thrive. By embracing Peer Workers, teams and services show respect, empathy, and appreciation for lived experience. This benefits people using services, of course, but also staff: in hectic, pressured and stretched services, being able to accept and cultivate a recovery focus is an advantage for everyone. Most of us spend most of our waking time at work. If work is a place that appreciates the mental health challenges many of us are living with, that’s not just good for people engaging in services – it’s better for everyone.

– Katy Hawkins

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (CNWL) have over 150 lived experience roles as part of their workforce. Later this year we’ll be sharing a short discussion film exploring what this looks like in practice. Sign up for our newsletter to get the film straight to your inbox once launched.