Digital Peer Support for People With Severe Mental Illness: Key Concepts and Findings Overview

Background

The majority of people affected by Severe Mental Illness (SMI) — schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, or major depressive disorder — have difficulties accessing care and the largest barriers include lack of trained professionals to comply with the demand, the stigma that mitigates help-seeking and the high cost of treatment (Naslund et al., 2014; O’Leary et al., 2018). Since the demand for care is unlikely to be met by training additional professionals, alternative approaches capable of significantly expand the capacity of mental health care are necessary (Andalibi & Flood, 2021; O’Leary et al., 2018). One way to overcome barriers related to traditional psychiatric services is to provide training and mentoring to develop the capacity of peers with mental health challenges to support each other (O’Leary et al., 2018).

Mental health services have been changed to a recovery-oriented model. Rather than focusing on symptom remission, this movement emphasizes the importance of developing personal goals and values (Peck et al., 2020). Some authors have suggested a framework with five personal recovery topics: 1) social connectedness; 2) hope and optimism about the future; 3) transforming identity; 4) finding meaning and purpose; 5) and finally, empowerment in mental health self-management forming the acronym “CHIME” (Leamy et al., 2011). Within the recovery model, people with SMI have shared their personal recovery experience to help peers increasing a “sense of authenticity, trust, understanding, acceptance and support in developing adaptive self-management strategies, counteracting negative stereotypes of mental illness and making it evident that recovery is possible” (Peck et al., 2020, p. 2). Peer support can offer a culture of health and ability as opposed to a culture of illness and disability by not being based on medical models and diagnostic criteria (Mead et al., 2001).