Peer support in mental health: State of play in Ireland

Liam Mac Gabhann in conversation with Martha Griffin, Ciara Glynn and Rebecca Fitzpatrick  Peer Support in Mental Health as an accredited national qualification since 2016 is entering a second decade. Six years into Sharing the Vision (2020), mental health policy intending to embed peer support working into all aspects of statutory service and support peer led community services. One could imagine that as a discipline, peer support is thriving; mental health service teams have radically shifted form an insular biomedical coercive approach to a relational empowering service provision; and evidence based mental health interventions are generally peer led or at the very least co-delivered with other professionals. Let's not imagine, lest we get lost in fantasy. Instead, we have a chat amongst three people who have been involved in the evolution of peer support in Ireland and are at different phases of that timeline. All three have been peer support workers, with Rebecca most recently qualified and now a peer support worker. They introduce themselves at the beginning of this podcast. We hope you find a moment in time commentary on the state of play, interesting.