Meet the team
Our team of ten peer support workers are part of Teesside Mind, Darlington Mind and TEWV.
Claire
I wanted to be a Peer Support Worker to be there for others who just need someone alongside them. Who understands and can have empathy for what they're feeling. And I can work with them to help them hopeful thrive.
I talk one-to-one - either by phone call or a face-to-face appointment. I get to know the person I'm supporting to build a trust and understand any goals or purpose they have now or in the future. I'm not there to fix but to walk alongside them. That could involve a walk, a coffee and chat, or give moral support for a meeting or other appointment they have.
I've been through a lot in a short space of time, to the point that my Mental Health suffered. But through therapy and a lot of Peer Support (people around me) I saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Also, I volunteered for the Recovery College as a co-facilitator alongside a Recovery Tutor. That experience is also an amazing thing to have to be there for someone else. Peer Support is such a valuable service because people who we support get to know that they're talking with someone who knows, even just a small bit, of what they're going through or experiencing.
Simon
I wanted to become a peer support worker after having the role recommended to me by the person I was working with in Impact on Teesside.
I work along side people providing an example of how there is light at the end of the tunnel through listening, empathy and validating their own experience.
I think we all have the skills needed to be a peer to someone, to support them its just we sometimes forget to use them or don’t realise we are. I don’t judge. I keep an open mind. I think everyone’s experiences in life are important, impactful and informative to them. I think we all have the potential to be the best version of ourselves and the right to strive towards being that version; regardless of whether we achieve it.
As to my own lived in experience; I have seen the benefits of just sitting with people and being with them and the dangers of a lack of empathy.
Sara
I attended a Lived Experience Event in July 2023. At the time, I was employed but on sick leave due to mental health issues and subsequently I lost my job. Following the event, I responded to an invitation to form a co-production group and with four other members developed a framework for involving service users. I was one of the group members to go on and turn the document into a training session for staff and delivered it twice to different groups of staff.
During this time, I experienced an exacerbation of my mental health issues but continued to attend the co-production group and helped develop a set of guidelines to improve information shared on referrals and during assessments. A new job opportunity for Peer Support Workers was advertised so I applied for the role and was successful!
Being part of this group was a transformative experience. It wasn’t just about contributing to change, it gave me a sense of purpose and achievement that I hadn’t felt in a long time. Being part of something that can truly make a difference has been a source of motivation and strength. This experience has been a crucial part of my healing journey – one I continue to walk.
Eliza
When I was being helped with my mental health, I was allocated a peer support worker who gave me hope and inspired me. I said that one day, when I’m ready, I wanted to become a peer support worker just like them.
If my experiences can be used in a way that helps someone, then that’s what I want to do, to show that even if our experiences are different, you are not alone, and I care. Peer support addresses stigma and understands that everyone is different, valuing these differences.
The role of peer support involves walking alongside people, meeting them where they’re at, rather than leading them, and is all about empowering people knowing that they are the experts of themselves - how they feel is valid. It can look like many different things for different people.
Peer support is a valuable service supporting mental health because it adds an element of mutuality, that peer support aren’t clinicians; we are other people who have our own experiences.