Doing peer work in mental health services
Unpacking different enactments of lived experiences
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3612337 |
|---|---|
| Authors | M L Kessing (0000-0002-0591-8035, University of Copenhagen, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 31 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 32-46 |
| Publication date | 2022-01-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Health Sociology Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1446-1242 • E-ISSN: 1839-3551 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/14461242.2020.1865183 |
| PMID | 33467991 |
| OpenAlex | W3122063505 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 11 |
| References cited | 25 |
Mental health services are increasingly employing peer workers (PWs), individuals who have lived experiences with mental health problems, to support patients and be part of mental health care teams. While the employment of PWs continues to increase, little is known about how the function unfolds in practice. This paper explores the broader context in which the PWs navigate and the concrete outcomes and everyday issues that exist at the individual level. Methodologically, the paper draws on 22 interviews with PWs employed in the mental health services in Denmark. Theoretically, it combines Lipsky's (1980) theory on street-level bureaucrats with sociological discussions concerning the lay-expert divide. The analysis shows that PWs experience both role ambiguity and goal uncertainty and that they use substantial discretion in determining the nature, amount and quality of their peer practices. This - combined with the PWs' diverse lived experiences - calls for a heterogeneous understanding of peer work and therefore the analysis presents three categories of peer workers: PWs as (1) a representative of patients' lifeworld, (2) an interdisciplinary professional and (3) an 'expert by experience'. These categories display PWs different enactments of their lived experiences and reveal ambiguities tied to the lay-expert divide
Ambiguity · Discretion · Lifeworld · Lived experience · Mental health · Political science · Psychiatry · Psychotherapist · Public relations · Qualitative research · Social science · Sociology · Homelessness and Social Issues · Mental Health and Patient Involvement · Psychology · Social Work Education and Practice
Deservingness, humanness, and representation through lived experience
A systematic review of the barriers and facilitators to lived experience involvement in mental health services
Revealing an enabling environment
Navigating health and social care systems
Race, Lived Experience, Representation, and Discrimination
Islands in the stream
Peer-Led Models Focussed on Emotional Distress and Suicide Prevention
Self-casting and alter-casting
Ethnography of User Involvement
The emotional labour of peer work
Empathetic knowledge
Institutions and the Person
Creating Citizen-Consumers
Experiential knowledge as a resource for coping with uncertainty
Prenatal Care Use Among Women of Low Income
Authenticity Work
From Schism to Continuum? The Problematic Relationship Between Expert and Lay Knowledge—An Exploratory Conceptual Synthesis of Two Qualitative Studies
Benefits and Mechanisms of Recovery Among Peer Providers With Psychiatric Illnesses
Care, empowerment and self-determination in the practice of peer support
What's in a Name
Individual Peer Support
Knowing Patients
Strategic Storytelling
Having those conversations
Lay epidemiology and the prevention paradox
Belief, knowledge and expertise
| Unique citing works | 11 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3,67 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2026 (4) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 11 |