It'll all end in peers?

[Mat Rawsthorne]

How do you think the employment of service users of mental health trusts by them as Peer Support Workers will change the nature of involvement? i think that these ''Prosumers" (consumers as providers) will provide realtime feedback as they are meant to act as a bridge between professionals and their patients. But how will traditional SU representatives respond to these 'hybrids'?

[Bill Penson]

Hi Mat,

I like the title of the thread.  Who isn't a peer? I wonder if such roles reveal a few things- the persistent state and status  of otherness that service users endure when in touch with 'clinicians' and whether the new roles are kind of like having translators.  You can bet that the peer roles won't be exempt from organisational policies so is just a case have having 'agents' on the inside; when involvement fails perhaps you can employ and manage. It won't matter how SU reps respond because there will always be a good answer from say a Trust, but, rather what will actually change for service users? Don't we already have best practice and evidence based interventions? What exactly is the probelm that prosumers respond to?

Bill