Peer support available to all

The first Q Lab launched in 2017 to explore what it would take for effective peer support to be more widely available to those who need it, to help manage their long-term health and wellbeing needs.

It can take place in formal health care settings, in informal groups, and it often exists on the boundary between health services, charities and communities.

This diversity in peer support has implications for how it is understood and delivered. The term ​‘peer support’ can cover a range of activities. This can cause misunderstanding, complexity in how to measure and evaluate peer support, and difficulties in how people become aware of and access services.

Interest has been growing in the UK and internationally about how health and care services can put people at the centre of their care and support them to become active partners. In the UK, much of this work sits under the banner of person-centred care, personalisation, or choice and control. However, prioritisation of and access to peer support is patchy.

From April 2017 to May 2018, Q Lab worked with almost 200 Lab participants with different experiences of and expertise in peer support. Representatives from National Voices, Mind and Positively UK took part. 

Together, we undertook research to understand what is working well in peer support and where there are opportunities to improve and accelerate this.

Working with YouGov and Dr Christina Pagel from University College London, we conducted a nationwide survey on decision-making in peer support; we believe it was the biggest peer support survey in the UK at the time. 

Our national survey on peer support revealed a number of insights.

• Almost one in five members of the public had used peer support.
• Those with long-term conditions were more than twice as likely to have used peer support as those without a long-term condition.
• Three women had used peer support for every two men.
• Those under 65 years of age were almost twice as likely to have used peer support as those over 65.

• Almost a quarter of health care professionals had referred to peer support.
• Mental health professionals were most likely to refer to peer support, with just over half saying that they had referred.
• 39% of GPs, 38% of hospital doctors and 35% of nurses and midwives said they had referred to peer support.

The health care workforce, peer support workforce and the public who hadn’t used peer support all considered the same factors as the most important for a peer support service.

These factors all appeared in the top six for people who had used peer support before, but they valued the chance to meet people with similar experiences over the ability to access the service quickly. 

Q Lab revealed that high quality materials on peer support are scattered across the internet. This makes finding relevant information to inform the development of effective peer support services an arduous and sometimes impossible task for time-poor professionals. 

As a direct result of the Lab, the Health Foundation awarded a grant to National Voices to develop a new online evidence hub for peer support. 

The Peer Support Hub launched in March 2019 to collate, curate and categorise the best quality information and evidence together in one place; making it easier for people to find useful, high quality resources.

The Hub is no longer being updated but you can contact National Voices for the catalogue of materials.

Contact us about Q Lab at Qlab@health.org.uk