Sustaining peer support relationships in the Aotearoa New Zealand health system

The research

Summary: Investigating the 'fit' between peer support organisations and the DHBs which fund them. How peer supporters build relationships of mutuality while working within the constraints of the health system. Addresses such issues as contracts, audit, risk, boundaries, assessment, health information, working practices, and what peer supporters consider to be good peer relationships.

Objectives: 1. How are peer support relationships conceptualised by peer supporters in Aotearoa New Zealand? 2. How do peer support relationships affect the lives and recovery of peer supporters? 3. How can a vision of mutual relationships be put into practice by peer support services, while working within the constraints of the Aotearoa New Zealand health system?

Study design: We will visit up to ten peer support organisations, of varying types and in varying locations nationally. These were chosen by creating a list of all peer support services in the country and then purposively sampling services known to be innovative, and varying in type of service, location, and populations served. This includes two primarily Maori organisations. At each organisation we will spend some time informally visiting and talking, reading documents and so forth. In the mainstream organisations, we will also conduct two interviews with two or three workers in each organisation - a manager and one or two peer supporters. The first interview relates to the first two research questions, and the second, more structured, interview relates to the third research question. In the Maori organisations, we will conduct a kaupapa Maori research process, which involves collective korero. The data will be transcribed, collated, and written up into a report which will be disseminated in New Zealand. Peer reviewed journal articles will also be produced.

Results: Key words: Working relationships, support, support organizations.

Conclusions:

Ethics approval: Yes
Academic led: Yes
Service led: No
Publication in peer review journal: Pending
How were service users involved: Unspecified