Service User Experiences of Peer Support Workers.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Service User Experiences of Peer Support Workers in an Adult Community Mental Health Service: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.
IRAS ID
183257
Contact name
Louise M Mullineaux
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 6 months, 29 days
Research summary
Recently many NHS mental health Trusts have employed increasing numbers of paid peer support workers (PSW) to work with service users. These employees are known as "peers" because they are employed because they have personal experience of mental health difficulties. A PSW is actively encouraged to use their lived experience in their work with service users and this emphasis on using lived experience is what makes peer support different to other staff who support service users, such as nurses, clinical support workers or therapists. However, despite the importance placed on lived experience in these roles, it is unclear if the sharing of lived experience is what matters to service users or even if they find it helpful. The impact of disclosure of lived experience on service users' experiences of the relationship is unknown. This study aims to explore this relationship and discover how service users make sense of the experience; in doing so, the role of lived experience may be illuminated, as well as other factors of import as yet unknown. The findings will be fed back to stakeholders and may be used to inform PSW training, as well as contribute to our understanding of peer interventions.
Six to eight service users from Norfolk and Suffolk will be recruited who have worked with a Peer Support Worker for at least 6 hours individually. Information will be collected by the author during one, one-hour face-to-face interview, and analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). The end-goal will be to increase understanding of what happens and what matters to service users in this relationship; and to inform PSW training. It is hoped it will contribute to theoretical understanding of this relationship and stimulate future research. It is a student study towards a doctoral qualification in clinical psychology at the University of East Anglia.
REC name
East Midlands - Leicester Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/EM/0109
Date of REC Opinion
15 Mar 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion