Service users’ challenges in developing helpful relationships with peer support workers

Abstract

This study contributes to the existing literature on peer support and complexities in peer support practices by exploring and describing service users’ perspectives on challenges in developing helpful relationships with peer support workers. Twenty-six service users with mental health and/or substance problems who had collaborated with one or more peer support workers on five or more occasions voluntarily participated across five focus groups. Interviews with these participants were tape-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analyzed using the Braun-Clark approach to thematic analysis, resulting in two major themes: (a) embrace the difference and (b) harness the contextual factors. The findings suggest that peer support by sharing lived experiences does not always result in helpful relationships that promote recovery. How and when aspects of lived experience are shared appears to play an important role in characterizing relationships as helpful or not.