Peer Support Initiatives
Tuesday, 8 March 2011
The PFG believe strongly in the power of peer support. We believe that peer support will be a strong element of making personalisation successful and we are constantly seeking new ways of developing our peer support services.
As a group we have designed individual peer support for our members and here is a selection of some of the peer support that we do:
We worked as a group to ensure that we had bus fares available to organise a visit to the hospital every day when a member of the group got unwell. We provided a cake and a get together for their birthday which would have otherwise gone unmarked. The member said that this support provided the power and belief that they needed to get well. It prevented the person from feeling alone and isolated during one of their most vulnerable times. We want to be able to develop our visiting scheme further so that it can be accessed by anyone would would benefit from our support. We are in the process of applying for grants and other funding opportunities to purchase travel passes so that we can extend this service.
A member of the group recently moved house. We provided practical support to pack belongings and get them settled in their new home.
A member of the group is a skilled chef and he gives his time to support others to develop the skills they need to be able to prepare nutritious meals on a limited budget.
Mambers of the group support others to fill forms in, read letters and attend appointments.
The group are working very hard to develop the systems we need to make our peer support widely available. We will be developing a time banking service where people can both give and receive time. This will be people exchanging their skills for the skills they need from others. We are very excited about the possibilities of the time banking scheme and will be asking the Local Authority and Mental Health Services to support us with this project.
The group are also developing skills in Personal Budgets and support planning. We will be offering our services to help others plan the support they need through the use of a Personal Budget or a Direct Payment.
