On a visit to Dunedin Hospital yesterday, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey said the concept of peer support in the mental health sphere was not something new.
"When I think of mental health, I think of lived experience.
"I think of those people who have their own mental health issues, who might have engaged in support before, and the ability now with lived experience to be part of the solution, I think is something we should celebrate in New Zealand. I’m calling it the silent revolution."
The programme had already been rolled out in Auckland City, Wellington, Christchurch and Waikato hospitals and the results had been pleasing so far, Mr Doocey said.
"We’ve got 91% more peer support roles in place now than we did two years ago when we came into office. So in a time of crisis, people can reach out and get support they need."
Life Matters Suicide Prevention Trust director Dr Meg Vardy said the relationships peer support workers formed would be crucial.
"Our hope is that by working here in the ED department, we can support people in those moments that they might be having the worst day of their lives.
"So we can support them in that moment for them to build connections that might be with us at the Hope Centre, which is just across the road.
"Or it could be other community supports that can help them in the long run. But we always work from that place of authentic relationship as a tool so that people can build their own communities of mutual support."
Everybody who came into the peer support workforce had been through their own journey, Dr Vardy said.
"So lived experience is one piece. On top of that, all of our peer support specialists who will be coming into ED are trained in what’s called intentional peer support, which is a formalised approach of peer support. It’s an internationally recognised training."
Dunedin ED charge nurse manager Janet Andrews said the department would work closely with Life Matters to determine when would be the best times and shifts to utilise the peer support workers.
"I think we need to make sure that our peer support workers are safe in our environment, and we want the teams to come together because ultimately it is about the patients that are coming to us in their whanau and our wider community.
"So we want to ensure that we are ready and that we’re not going to set ourselves up to fail because we want to make it work."
The workers would be funded by money ring-fenced for mental health activities in the Budget.
Dr Vardy said the approach would be comprehensive.
"ED at times can be essentially like the bottom of the cliff.
"We don’t want it to be that, and we want for them to know that there are other places out there they can go and have support because they are our people; they are our community."
