Peer support workers play an increasingly important role in mental health, wellbeing, and recovery-oriented services. Their value does not come from clinical authority, but from lived or living experience.
They use their own experiences with mental health challenges, substance use recovery, trauma, or significant adversity to provide understanding, validation, and hope that traditional support roles may not always offer.
Understanding what a peer support worker is, how the role functions in practice, and the value it brings to individuals and organisations can help people make informed decisions about wellbeing support, service design, and recovery-focused care.
What Is a Peer Support Worker?
A peer support worker is an individual with lived or living experience of mental health or substance use challenges who has been trained and employed to support others facing similar experiences.
Their expertise is derived from their own recovery journey, combined with formal training that enables them to use that experience safely, ethically, and professionally.
While peer support can occur informally in everyday life, a peer support worker typically operates in a paid, professional capacity within a mental health or wellbeing workforce.
Many peer support workers complete specialised training programs and work within defined roles, job descriptions, and organisational frameworks.
Peer support workers are recognised as subject matter experts in recovery. Their role is not to diagnose, treat, or prescribe, but to support people in enhancing quality of life, strengthening self-direction, and working toward personal goals.
The Core Principles of Peer Support
These foundations align closely with established peer support theory, including Julie Repper’s work in Peer Support Workers: Theory and Practice, which describes peer support as mutual, reciprocal, non-directive, recovery-focused, strengths-based, inclusive, progressive, and grounded in emotional safety.
1. Shared Lived Experience
At the heart of peer support is shared lived or living experience. While peers’ experiences are never identical, peer support workers understand common mental health challenges and the social meaning of being defined as a “mental patient” in society, including the confusion, loneliness, fear, and hopelessness that can follow.
Support is offered from genuine understanding shaped by personal experience, rather than professional distance or theoretical knowledge alone.
This shared foundation helps establish immediate trust and emotional safety, allowing individuals to feel seen and understood without needing to explain or justify their feelings. It reinforces the sense that they are not alone in their experience.
2. Mutuality and Reciprocity
Peer support is grounded in mutuality and reciprocity rather than hierarchy or authority. Unlike traditional professional relationships that assume an expert and a non-expert, peer support relationships involve no claim to special authority over another person.
Instead, the relationship is collaborative, grounded in shared humanity and the exploration of diverse perspectives. Both individuals are active participants, contributing insight and learning from one another.
3. Empowerment, Choice, and Non-Directive Support
A central aim of peer support is empowerment. Peer support workers do not prescribe solutions or direct others toward a specific course of action. Rather than offering advice based on what worked for them, they support individuals to recognise their own strengths, values, and resources.
Support focuses on helping people identify what matters to them and choose pathways that align with their personal goals. This non-directive approach reinforces autonomy and self-determination, supporting the belief that individuals can shape their own recovery and well-being. As described in peer support theory, peer workers are “experts in not being experts,” helping others discover their own solutions.
4. Hope and Recovery Orientation
Peer support is deeply recovery-oriented. By embodying recovery professionally and intentionally, peer support workers demonstrate that change, growth, and improved wellbeing are possible. Their presence provides clear evidence that recovery does not follow a single path and can look different for each person.
This recovery-focused approach inspires hope, supports individuals in regaining control over their challenges, and facilitates access to opportunities aligned with their values. For individuals who feel discouraged or stuck, this lived example of recovery can be particularly powerful.
5. Strengths-Based, Inclusive, and Safe Practice
Peer support is grounded in a strengths-based approach that recognises possibility even within distress. Peer support workers are not afraid to be present with difficult emotions, while also helping individuals identify personal qualities, resilience, and achievements that may otherwise go unnoticed. Progress is recognised and celebrated, even when it appears small.
Peer support is also inclusive, recognising that lived experience is shaped by cultural, social, and community contexts.
Understanding language, values, and community dynamics enables peer support workers to connect people with meaningful resources and opportunities for inclusion.
Emotional safety is central to peer support relationships. Safety is negotiated collaboratively, with attention to confidentiality, boundaries, compassion, authenticity, and non-judgement. Peer support acknowledges uncertainty and does not assume that anyone has all the answers.
6. Progressive and Relational Support
Peer support is not a static or one-sided relationship. It is a progressive, relational process in which both individuals continue to learn and develop over time.
Peer support workers act as travelling companions rather than fixers, offering connection, encouragement, and understanding as individuals recognise their own resources, build insight, and move forward at their own pace.
What Does a Peer Support Worker Do?
Peer support workers provide practical and emotional support that complements clinical and professional services. Their responsibilities vary by setting, but commonly include:
- Listening without judgement and validating lived experience
- Sharing personal recovery insights when appropriate and purposeful
- Supporting self-management strategies and wellbeing planning
- Assisting with Wellness Recovery Action Plans or similar tools
- Encouraging self-advocacy and informed decision-making
- Facilitating connections to community services and resources
By sharing their own recovery story professionally and intentionally, peer support workers help reduce stigma and shift identity from patienthood to personhood. This visibility reinforces hope and challenges the belief that recovery is unattainable.
How Peer Support Differs from Counselling or Clinical Roles
Peer support is often misunderstood as an alternative to counselling or therapy. In reality, the roles are distinct and complementary.
Clinical professionals focus on assessment, diagnosis, and treatment. Peer support workers focus on connection, understanding, and lived experience. Where clinicians may guide through intervention, peer support workers support through relationship and shared meaning.
Many people benefit most when peer support operates alongside counselling, trauma-informed care, or medical treatment, offering relational safety that encourages engagement with broader support systems.
Types of Peer Support
Peer support can take several forms, each with different structures, intentions, and levels of responsibility. Understanding these distinctions helps clarify how peer support functions across informal, community-based, and professional settings.
1. Informal or Naturally Occurring Peer Support
This form of peer support arises organically through everyday relationships between people with shared experiences. It is unplanned, voluntary, and based on personal connection rather than defined roles or responsibilities. These relationships resemble ordinary friendships, in which support is naturally provided through listening, shared understanding, and mutual care.
Informal peer support has existed for as long as people have shared experiences of mental health challenges or life adversity. Individuals often exchange coping strategies, encouragement, and insight simply by being present for one another during difficult periods.
While this form of support can be deeply meaningful, it is not structured, supervised, or designed to replace professional or formal services.
2. Peer-Run Groups or Consumer-Led Programs
Peer-run groups and consumer-led programs provide a more structured form of peer support. These settings are typically facilitated by people with lived experience and often operate alongside formal mental health or wellbeing services.
Support is commonly delivered in group formats, though individual peer connections may develop over time.
Unlike informal friendships, peer-run environments usually follow shared agreements or collective codes of conduct. These guidelines are often developed by consensus and help establish safety, respect, and mutual accountability within the group.
Programs such as buddy systems or befriending initiatives fall into this category, offering a balance between relational support and a structured framework.
Peer-run programs create spaces where lived experience is centred, collective voice is valued, and participants are encouraged to support one another while maintaining agreed boundaries.
3. Intentional Peer Support or Paid Peer Workers
Intentional peer support represents the most formal expression of peer work. In this model, individuals with lived experience are employed as peer support workers within mental health, wellbeing, or community services. Specific job descriptions, professional supervision, and adherence to organisational policies and ethical standards define these roles.
Peer support workers in this category use their personal recovery experience as professional expertise. Their lived experience is not incidental; it is a core component of their role, intentionally applied to help others achieve their personal goals.
Unlike informal or group-based peer support, intentional peer support carries clear responsibilities, accountability, and expectations aligned with workforce standards.
To help visualise these differences, peer support can be compared to learning how to swim. Informal peer support is like friends splashing together at the beach, learning through shared experience and enjoyment. Peer-run groups are like joining a local swimming club, where participants follow agreed-upon routines and support one another in a structured environment.
Intentional peer support is like being guided by a trained lifeguard who once feared the water themselves, but now uses both experience and training to support others safely and professionally.
The Value of Peer Support in Wellbeing and Mental Health
Peer support offers value that extends well beyond individual connection. When integrated into wellbeing and mental health systems, peer support influences how services are experienced, how recovery is understood, and how outcomes are achieved.
Key benefits of peer support include:
- Reduced stigma and increased engagement
One of the most significant contributions of peer support is its ability to reduce stigma. Many people feel safer and more willing to open up when supported by someone who has navigated similar challenges. This shared understanding can reduce defensiveness, ease shame, and encourage individuals to engage more fully with support services. - Improved quality of care experiences
Peer involvement is consistently associated with more positive care experiences. Research shows that services incorporating peer support are often perceived as more empathetic, respectful, and human. Individuals report feeling heard and understood, rather than assessed or managed, which helps build trust and supports ongoing engagement. - Strengthened confidence and self-efficacy
Peer support emphasises strengths, lived wisdom, and personal agency. By reinforcing the belief that individuals can manage their own wellbeing and shape their recovery journey, peer support helps counter feelings of helplessness that often accompany prolonged distress. - Positive system-level outcomes
Evidence indicates that integrating peer support into mental health services can contribute to reduced coercive practices in acute settings, lower hospitalisation rates, and shorter inpatient stays.
Together, these outcomes reflect a broader shift toward recovery-oriented approaches that prioritise dignity, choice, collaboration, and meaningful participation in care.
Peer Support in Workplace and Organisational Settings
Peer support workers are increasingly recognised as valuable contributors to workplace wellbeing and organisational health. Within organisational settings, they may support employees experiencing stress, burnout, emotional strain, or mental health recovery challenges.
In the workplace, peer support offers a relational and accessible form of early intervention. Employees may feel more comfortable speaking with a peer support worker than engaging immediately with clinical services or formal reporting processes. This early connection can help normalise help-seeking, reduce isolation, and prevent concerns from escalating.
Peer support can also complement Employee Assistance Programs by enhancing engagement and accessibility. While EAPs provide essential professional services, peer support adds a layer of connection that encourages individuals to take the first step toward seeking help.
Importantly, peer support does not replace counselling or clinical care. Instead, it works alongside professional services, strengthening wellbeing frameworks by making support feel more approachable and human.
At an organisational level, the inclusion of peer support workers can contribute to a culture that values openness, psychological safety, and recovery. By integrating lived experience into wellbeing strategies, organisations signal a commitment to supporting employees as whole people, not just workers, fostering healthier, more sustainable workplaces.
Organisational Benefits of Peer Support Workers
Organisations that integrate peer support workers often experience benefits that extend beyond individual wellbeing outcomes.
The presence of peer workers can influence organisational culture, service quality, operational efficiency, and community engagement in meaningful and lasting ways.
Cultural Transformation
Peer support workers often serve as recovery champions within organisations. Their lived experience challenges deficit-focused perspectives and fosters a transition toward strength-based, recovery-oriented practices.
Through the demonstration of shared power and collaboration, peer workers help redefine traditional hierarchies and advance co-production, in which individuals are acknowledged as equal partners in their care rather than passive recipients of services.
Over time, this cultural transformation can affect team communication, decision-making processes, and conceptualisations of recovery.
Improved Service Quality and Outcomes
The integration of peer support is linked to improvements in service quality across a range of settings. Research indicates that peer involvement can contribute to reduced use of coercive practices, such as restraint or seclusion, particularly in acute environments.
Services that include peer workers also report lower rates of hospitalisation and shorter inpatient stays. These outcomes reflect improved engagement, trust, and continuity of care, as individuals are more likely to remain connected to services that feel respectful and supportive.
Financial and Operational Efficiency
From an organisational perspective, peer support roles can offer cost-effective contributions to service delivery. Peer workers typically cost less than traditional clinical roles and help reduce demand on high-cost acute services through earlier engagement and ongoing relational support.
In addition, peer workers often provide practical assistance and emotional support that clinical staff may not have the capacity to deliver, such as accompanying individuals to community appointments or supporting social inclusion, thereby enhancing overall service effectiveness.
Stronger Policies and Workforce Wellbeing
Employing peer support workers often prompts organisations to review and strengthen internal policies and practices. To support peer roles effectively, organisations may need to improve mental health policies, flexible work arrangements, supervision models, and duty-of-care frameworks.
These improvements frequently benefit the wider workforce, not only peer workers, contributing to healthier, more supportive workplace environments and improved staff wellbeing.
Strengthened Community Connection
Peer support workers often serve as a vital link between organisations, service users, families, and community resources. Because peer workers often come from the same cultural or social communities as those they support, they are well-positioned to identify community strengths and facilitate meaningful social inclusion.
This role supports organisations in promoting active citizenship and reinforces their connection to the communities they serve.
These benefits make peer support workers catalysts for organisational growth and transformation. Integrating lived experience into teams enhances service quality, supports workforce wellbeing, and strengthens community engagement.
Creating a Peer-Friendly Environment
For peer support to succeed, organisations must move beyond recruitment and address cultural, structural, and managerial readiness.
This includes recovery-oriented training, addressing workplace stigma, precise role definitions, flexible HR policies, responsive supervision, peer-to-peer mentoring, and genuine career development pathways.
Designing a peer-friendly environment is like preparing the soil before planting. When organisational culture is enriched with recovery values and flexibility, peer support roles can take root and benefit the entire ecosystem.
Understanding the Role and Value of Peer Support
Peer support workers provide a unique and valuable perspective within wellbeing systems by drawing on their lived experience. Their role is to foster connection, hope, and empowerment through shared understanding, rather than to fix, diagnose, or direct.
By supporting others as equals, they help create environments where individuals feel heard, respected, and empowered to shape their own wellbeing.
Recognising the value of peer support allows individuals and organisations to move beyond purely clinical models and toward more inclusive, compassionate approaches to care. When lived experience is acknowledged as expertise, support systems become more human, accessible, and responsive to real-world needs.
For organisations, integrating peer support alongside professional services can strengthen recovery-oriented practice, improve engagement, and support psychologically safer environments.
For individuals, understanding how peer support complements counselling or other therapeutic services can clarify which type of support feels most appropriate at different stages of well-being or recovery.
If you are exploring wellbeing support options or considering how peer support may fit alongside professional care, choosing services that reflect your values, needs, and goals is essential. D’Accord OAS provides counselling and wellbeing services delivered through trauma-informed practice, supporting individuals and workplaces to navigate emotional challenges safely and sustainably.
These services can complement recovery-oriented, peer-informed approaches by providing professional guidance, stability, and care when needed most. To learn more, visit the D’Accord OAS website or contact the team to discuss suitable support options.
