Knowledge for peer support workers
Peer support workers (PSWs) use personal recovery, person-centred and values-based approaches that do not focus on diagnoses or diagnostic classifications used by mental health professionals.
Competencies
The Competence Framework for MH PSWs follows the format of other competence frameworks in mental health, which are widely used to support commissioning, training and development in the NHS
Understanding the values of peer support and the principles that underpin them
At the core of peer support is the value placed on the use of lived experience of mental health difficulties (including the experience of caring for someone with experience of mental health difficulties) and seeing this as a form of expertise.