Family Peer Worker Perspectives on the Critical Issues for Family Peer Support in Youth Mental Health Settings

Abstract

Background: Family peer workers form connections with family members of young people attending mental health services and can offer emotional support, relevant information, and referrals based on their own lived experience. Although an increasing number of family peer support programs exist in the youth mental health sector, they are rarely described or reported on. There is a need for greater documentation of the experiences of family peer workers operating in the sector to raise awareness of issues currently facing the workforce and support organisations to make positive changes. We present a detailed description of the factors that impact effective program implementation and delivery from the perspectives of four family peer workers and two supervisors.

Conclusions: Organisations should encourage self-care and social connections between family peer workers to reduce the impacts of ongoing mental health challenges, work-related burnout, and isolation. Colleagues should be educated about the field of family peer support to improve role clarity and foster a positive team environment. Within the field, it is vital to develop comprehensive position descriptions, training programs, and onboarding procedures to ensure new employees are adequately equipped. To improve staff retention and compensate those with further education, experience, and skills, organisations may consider offering increased remuneration, negotiating longer-term contracts with a potential for a greater number of workdays, and should create senior lived experience positions. Further research is needed to formally investigate barriers and facilitating factors of program implementation in mental health settings.

Keywords: early intervention; family peer work; family support; peer support work; youth mental health.