2-minute read

What is peer support?

In a nutshell, peer support is where people use their own personal experiences of mental health challenges to provide practical and social support to one another.

What makes this report different?

The Wellcome Trust charitable foundation has released part of its 2020 Workplace Mental Health Report. It takes what was learned from their first commission and expands by discussing promising approaches for addressing workplace mental health.

The difference this time is that the report combines the reviews of multiple academic papers as well as numerous real-world examples on the subject. The evidence collated to date is far broader than any previously compiled, and now highlights both the resulting theoretical and practical benefits of peer support in one report.

The key points

• Results showed significant positive impacts on measures of depression, anxiety and exhaustion by incorporating peer support into the workplace. Better still, these results were sustained at the 12-month follow-up, along with significant positive effects on the employees’ perceptions of workload and available support, participation at work, and engagement.
  
  

• Peer support is a “useful and comparatively inexpensive tool for alleviating work-related stress and burnout”, enabling employees to remain in work.
  
  

• Implementing a mental health peer support program in a workplace can decrease stigma around mental illness and increase worker engagement.
  
  

• High level of effectiveness - individuals experienced significant decreases in both depression and anxiety symptoms in conjunction with increases in hope and of quality of life.
  
  

• Creating the right environment for a peer support programme to be successful is challenging, but through excellent coaching of the peer leaders, a climate of trust between employers and employees, plus safeguards to ensure privacy and confidentiality it is highly impactful.
  
  

• Perhaps most significantly, support groups led by Peer Supporters were more beneficial in reducing symptoms of depression than professionally-led group therapy sessions.

Habitus leads the way

With decades of expertise of delivering high-quality peer support programmes to organisations, we are delighted to have this work vindicated by the results from the Wellcome Trust.

Peer support’s ability to improve mental health is still a relatively untapped model in the UK. As such, awareness of it and of its benefits is low, particularly in the commercial sphere. Our aim is to use our broad knowledge and international experience to bring peer support to a wide audience so that your employees, and ultimately, your firm can benefit.

Take the next steps to improve the mental health of your employees

You can read more about what how peer support can help your employees here:

Habitus specialises in providing practical, engaging and lasting solutions to mental health.

For more information on how Habitus can help your organisation increase a sense of belonging for employees, create happier teams and increase productivity, click here. Alternatively, send us a message by clicking here or contact us by phone on 020 7207 3186.

Information sourced from:

Putting science to work: Understanding what works for workplace mental health - Wellcome Trust