General public definition
- Peer support is a supportive, recovery-oriented relationship between individuals who have had or have the same experience, that is, they have a shared lived or living experience.
- Peer support can offer social, emotional, spiritual, and instrumental support to promote a person’s well-being and path to recovery from mental health problems.
- Shared lived and living experiences can be the basis for a peer support relationship. These may be physical and/or mental health experiences, experiences of problematic workplaces, housing, or finances, or shared experiences of grief and loss.
- Peer support can be delivered one-to-one or by a group, and some peer support is a combination of both.
- To provide peers with safe and effective support, the expertise gained by the peer supporter through their lived experience is often supplemented with training (in basic counselling techniques and theory, as well as fields related to the shared experience).
- Examples of peer support are Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Operational Stress Injury Social Support (OSISS).
Academic definition
- The literature defines “peer support” in different ways; at its core, peer support is a supportive, recovery-oriented relationship between individuals that is based on perceived shared characteristics and shared lived and living experiences, such as experiencing posttraumatic stress disorder.48-50
- The shared lived and living experiences that can be the basis for a peer support relationship include physical and/or mental health experiences, experiences of problematic housing, finances, or workplaces, and experiences of grief and loss.
- Peer support can be delivered one-to-one or in a group, and some peer support is a combination of both.
- Peer support offers recovery-oriented social, emotional, and spiritual support, which is frequently coupled with instrumental support (e.g. psychoeducation, referral support, system navigation).51
- A peer who offers peer support may be called a peer supporter, a lived-experience peer, a peer support worker, a well-being responder, or a paraprofessional, among other terms.48
- A peer supporter’s proclivity for empathetic understanding of others in a similar or shared lived or living experience provides an automatic credibility with peer(s) seeking support.
- There are currently no broadly accepted or evidence-based standards related to peer support training; however, the knowledge and expertise of this experience is enhanced when supplemented with training (often in basic counselling techniques and theory, as well as fields related to the shared experience).52-55
- Examples of peer support are Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Operational Stress Injury Social Support (OSISS).
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