Notice Board
Peer Support
There is a national commitment in the NHS Long Term Plan to identify opportunities to increase the number of peer support workers in the mental health workforce up until 2024 and increase peer support supervisory capacity and capability.
Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust have employed a Project Manager (Paula Daley) to manage and deliver the consistent implementation of peer support worker roles across the Trust, including utilising peer support volunteers, recruiting to paid Peer Support Worker posts, developing a clear progression pathway from unpaid volunteering roles to paid worker roles and facilitating access to quality training, support and supervision.
What is peer support?
Peer support replicates what occurs quite naturally in all walks of life; personal connections that we find helpful, reassuring and motivating. It has been shown that peer workers with lived experience of a health challenge, can improve the sense of hope, motivation, community engagement and self-management of the people they support; they can help change the culture of services and being employed as a peer worker is generally very good for the recovery of the peer workers themselves.
Our Peer Support Worker (PSW) project will ensure peer support workers, both volunteer and paid, receive training and supervision to support them in their role safely, appropriately and effectively.
We will pilot for 12-months from January 2022 paid Peer Support Workers in our community teams.
If you would like to receive news from the project or have any questions please get in touch with the Project Manager:
Paula Daley paula.daley2@nhs.net