Family Peer Support
Family peer support connects those supporting their loved ones with people who understand their experience.
What is Family Peer Support?
Family peer support is based on relationships built through the shared experience of supporting a loved one as they navigate mental health challenges. Family Peers are there to listen, and to share what they’ve learned supporting their loved one’s journey of recovery, navigating systems of care, and making time for themselves in the process. They bring an understanding of the difficulties and the benefits of seeking support.
Family peer support at PIER focuses on building meaningful, mutually supportive relationships. Conversations may focus on communication with a loved one who is struggling, the process of navigating a diagnosis, maintaining personal wellness, or any other point of connection.
Recovery doesn’t happen alone. Learn how PIER builds treatment around the people who matter most to each participant.
Who provides Family Peer Support
Family peer support is provided by Family Peer Support Specialists who have experience supporting loved ones with mental health challenges and use that experience to support others. Family Peer Support Specialists meet with PIER participants family members one-on-one, facilitate parent support and activity groups, and participate in outreach.
All Family Peer Support Specialists maintain certification in the Pearls system (Parent Peer Support), which emphasizes Encouragement, Active Acceptance, Respect, Linking with others, and Suspending bias.
How Family Peer Support Helps
Family peer support can help by:
- Building understanding of what a loved one might be experiencing and how to talk about it
- Offering opportunities to both give and receive support
- Offering community at a time when community may be scarce
- Creating space to share experiences that may not feel right to bring to a clinical team
Family Peer Support complements other services and offers a different kind of connection within the PIER Program.
What Family Peer Support looks like
Peer support is flexible and shaped by the participant’s interests and goals. You and your Family Peer Support Specialist decide together how to spend time. This may include:
- Meeting one-on-one
Attending and activity or support group
Going for a walk
Sitting together at a coffee shop
Attending team meetings with your loved one
Locating programs for basic needs
Family Peer Support Specialists also offer activity and support groups that participants may choose to attend.
Frequently Asked Questions
Meetings happen as often as is helpful and may range from a few times per week to monthly. Support may take place one on one, as part of a Parent to Parent Group, or elsewhere in the community.
No. Family Peer Support is entirely voluntary. Participants can start, pause, or stop at any time by letting their Family Peer Support Specialist know what works best for them.
