1. Peer Support in Forensic Services & Community Navigators
Liz Walker
Blue Mills

2. Just imagine that you are …..
Frightened
Alone
Unable to explain how you feel
People treat you differently
Unable to believe that you will get through this
You can’t trust your self …
And then you meet someone who has been through it and has survived, in fact they are living a meaningful, contributing life…….

3. So this is peer support?
People explicitly drawing on their own lived experiences to support others
People who have ‘been there’ and moved on in their lives – so they embody ‘recovery’ and convey messages of hope
People who have found ways out of similar crises and so bring experience and confidence to support others
People who know how important it is to have someone who believes in you and takes you seriously and gives you time and space to find your feet.
“Learning about rather than problem solving, focus on the relationship rather than the individual, instil hope versus fear”
(Mead 2016)

4. What does this mean in Forensic Services?
You may already have examples of informal peer support
Buddy systems
Greeters on wards
Listeners particularly in prisons
Volunteers
Self help / sharing style groups on wards
What else?

5. You won’t have examples of formal paid peer support roles
the employment of people with lived experience of mental health conditions in forensic mental health services
their role includes explicitly drawing on their own experiences to support others going through similar things
may work as volunteers, interns or paid employees, but job description should include
a) that they have lived experience;
b) that they use their lived experience to support others
c) trained to use their lived experience

6. Peer support in secure services – Final Report (Together, 2014)
What is a peer? For most respondents what defined a peer was based on shared experience of mental health issues and/or using services Is it useful in secure services? In short, yes, majority of respondents felt it would be useful What kind of peer support? Agreement between respondents that it was emotional support ”just talking”, encouraging “you can do it”, supporting each other’s wellbeing (reciprocity), advocacy, settling people on to the ward environment Other than the overall levels of commitment to peer support amongst staff and patients, the most notable feature of these statistics is that staff are more supportive of peer support. The value of peer support Respondents agreed there were benefits to having peer support workers – patients felt hey would have more choice, staff felt that peer support could offer greater insight and understanding When is peer support useful Admission, discharge , good days bad days and crisis management

7. What may be some of the challenges when thinking about Peer support and peer support workers in Forensic Mental Health services?

8. Challenges
Who is peer? Mental health experience “V” Forensic mental Health experience
Requirement of HR – DBS, ID requirements
Requirement of service - MVA – No force first, extra level of security, additional training requirement, what would the role be, are there any roles the peer couldn’t do?
Managing boundaries
Accessing notes??? Index offences

9. Solutions Discuss on your table:
Who is able to be a peer support worker i.e. do they have to have forensic history? Discuss pros and cons
What else would the peer need to be fully integrated into the team? (additional training etc.)
What types of duties would the peer be doing?
What type of duties wouldn’t the peer be doing?

10. What's already in place to support the development of peer support workers?
TRIP and Team Preparation training
Peer support training with additional module
Being employed
Working in Forensic services
What is already available in your organisations?

11. Next steps
Discuss on tables and feedback

12. Community Navigators
Peers working in paid roles in the community supporting people to achieve personally defined recovery/life goals, to live the life they want to lead
What is LLWiR
Why is it important
Why Community Navigators

13. Thank you