Figure Out if Current Peer Support Programs are Working
Peer support can be used in:
- Mentorship programs: a program where a person helps another person to develop
- Interactional approach interventions: programs that focus on behaviors and attitudes
- Self-management interventions: programs that help a person be more independent at taking care of themselves
- Community-based participatory research: studies done in the community that involve community members in the whole process
It is important for researchers to learn more about how these existing programs using peer support are working and how they could be improved. Learning what is working in research using peer support can help researchers use peer support in other areas.
For example, research, on peer support and transition should find out how the behaviors and attitudes of the people giving and receiving support affect their relationship. The quality of this relationship can affect the program’s goals like work skills or social skills.
A peer supporter shared with us an example of how they adjust the way they communicate with different people they support:
“How do I peer support? I look at the questions. First, I look at their history first, the documents. And then if I see something that they like – like one self-advocate loves the Milwaukee Bucks – so I will make up questions about the Milwaukee Bucks but it includes advocacy questions. So what would Giannis do? So I use people, but I also use skills that they relate to…to make sure that the self-advocate understands.”
We also read this in research articles. Researchers explained that,
“Mentors adjusted their interactional approach [meaning their behaviors and attitudes] to optimize mentees’ engagement and understanding.”1
Learning more about what young adults think is important to research is key to figuring out what is important to research. One way to learn more about what young people think is to use peer support to include young people on research teams.
1. Schwartz, A. E. & Kramer, J. M. (2018). “I just had to be flexible and show good patience”: management of interactional approaches to enact mentoring roles by peer mentors with developmental disabilities, Disability and Rehabilitation, 40(20), 2364-2371. DOI: 10.1080/09638288.2017.1334835