Intentional Peer Support
Intentional Peer Support & Alternative Responses to Crisis Training
with Shery Mead*
Peer support has traditionally meant informal, non-professionalized help from people who have had similar life experiences. In mental health peers come together with many shared experiences including a negative reaction to traditional services. However without a new framework to build from it is not uncommon to find people re-enacting “help” based on what was done to them. Some people take on positions of power and others fall into passive recipient roles. Therefore, all training emphasizes a critical learning experience in which people mutually explore “how they’ve come to know what they know.” In other words, through intentional conversations, people examine their assumptions about who they are, what power-shared relationships can look like, and ultimately what’s possible. (5-8 days)
This is accomplished through a process of learning about:
- What makes intentional peer support different
- The 4 tasks (connection, worldview, mutual responsibility and moving towards)
- Listening with intention
- Challenging old roles
- Understanding trauma worldview and trauma re-enactment
- Working towards shared responsibility and shared power
- Creating a vision
- Using supervision as a tool to maintain values in action
*Shery Mead Consultant and Peer Provider, New Hampshire, USA is the past director of three New Hampshire Peer Support Programs including a peer run hospital alternative. She has done extensive speaking and training, nationally and internationally, on the topics of alternative approaches to crisis, trauma informed peer services, systems change, and the development and implementation of peer operated services.
Her publications include academic articles, training manuals and a new book co-authored with Mary Ellen Copeland , Wellness Recovery Action Planning and Peer Support . Shery is currently the project director for the Evidence Based Practice, Consumer Operated Programs Toolkit funded by SAMHSA.
http://www.mentalhealthpeers.com/
Intentional Peer Support & Alternative Responses to Crisis Training
with Shery Mead*
Peer support has traditionally meant informal, non-professionalized help from people who have had similar life experiences. In mental health peers come together with many shared experiences including a negative reaction to traditional services. However without a new framework to build from it is not uncommon to find people re-enacting “help” based on what was done to them. Some people take on positions of power and others fall into passive recipient roles. Therefore, all training emphasizes a critical learning experience in which people mutually explore “how they’ve come to know what they know.” In other words, through intentional conversations, people examine their assumptions about who they are, what power-shared relationships can look like, and ultimately what’s possible. (5-8 days)
This is accomplished through a process of learning about:
- What makes intentional peer support different
- The 4 tasks (connection, worldview, mutual responsibility and moving towards)
- Listening with intention
- Challenging old roles
- Understanding trauma worldview and trauma re-enactment
- Working towards shared responsibility and shared power
- Creating a vision
- Using supervision as a tool to maintain values in action
*Shery Mead Consultant and Peer Provider, New Hampshire, USA is the past director of three New Hampshire Peer Support Programs including a peer run hospital alternative. She has done extensive speaking and training, nationally and internationally, on the topics of alternative approaches to crisis, trauma informed peer services, systems change, and the development and implementation of peer operated services.
Her publications include academic articles, training manuals and a new book co-authored with Mary Ellen Copeland , Wellness Recovery Action Planning and Peer Support . Shery is currently the project director for the Evidence Based Practice, Consumer Operated Programs Toolkit funded by SAMHSA.
http://www.mentalhealthpeers.com/