User Interviews User – Practice and attitude development through Peer Support Specialists in Outreach teams
In 2013, KBT started a two-year project with employments of peer support specialists in various outreach teams in Central Norway Regional Health Authority.
The goal of this evaluation was to take a closer look at the experiences with peer supporters work with the users, and their role as reflecting partners for the other team members. We also looked into how the specialists had contributed to cultural alterations within the teams.
Both teams in the project saw the peer specialists as useful for the patients, and felt they provided the users with a sense of hope. They felt the specialists challenged them, either in their work or in their attitudes, by providing different solutions and perspectives to the tasks at hand. The teams emphasized that the peer support workers were good at questioning the decisions being taken.
The teams felt the specialists were important both in the work with the users, and in discussions where the teams reflected around their practice. It was important that the experience-based competency was requested, and that there existed an arena in which they hot to voice their viewpoints. There did, however, appear to be a challenge for both parties that the roles of the specialists were not so clearly defined.
Authors:
Juni Raak Høiseth
Dagfinn Bjørgen
Ingvild M. Kvisle
Report in English:
Report in Norwegian:
Evaluering av prosjektet “Praksis- og holdningsutvikling gjennom erfaringskonsulent i ambulante team” (2016)