Service user, consumer and peer support workforce - A guide for planners and funders

The service user, consumer and peer workforce is a diverse and rapidly growing workforce in today’s mental health and addiction services in New Zealand. It includes all roles that require lived experience, for example consumer advisors and peer support workers.

This guide has been written for planners and funders of mental health and addiction services. It defines the major types of peer work, policy context, its values, evidence-base and development needs. It finishes with a list of resources planners and funders can refer to for more information.

It is designed to be used in conjunction with the Competencies for the mental health and addiction consumer, service user and peer workforce, a resource to inform the service design or improvement process.