Peer Support for Youth and Young Adults who Experience Serious Mental Health Conditions: State of the Science (original) (raw)

Peer support is a quickly emerging workforce in mental health services generally (Cronise, Teixeira, Rogers, & Harrington, 2016; Lloyd-Evans et al., 2014; Myrick & del Vecchio, 2016), and increasing its availability has been advocated by service users, researchers, and government commissions (Faulkner & Bassett, 2012; Halvorson & Whitter, 2009; Myrick & del Vecchio, 2016; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2004). Peer support is based on the idea that people who have experienced and overcome a particular type of adversity can serve as source of support, encouragement and hope to others experiencing similar situations, and may also be uniquely positioned to promote service engagement (Davidson, Chinman, Sells & Rowe, 2006; Myrick & del Vecchio, 2016; Lloyd-Evans, et al., 2014).