A Peer Support Worker has travelled a similar path and can share relatable experiences. They can walk alongside you, no matter what kind of day you're having. Peer support is delivered by our Peer Support Workers, people trained to share their lived experience of mental ill health and recovery to support others.

Peer support sessions involve sharing your experiences with someone who has gone through similar situations or challenges. Our Peer Support Workers can provide emotional support, practical advice and encouragement.

headspace offers Peer Support to all young people and caregivers engaged with our service. They can offer support through individual one-on-one sessions, peer-led groups and online forums.

When you meet a Youth Peer Support Worker, you are meeting with someone who has had their own lived experience of dealing with mental health concerns as a young person. The Youth Peer Support Worker will introduce themself and welcome you into one of the comfortable spaces in the centre.

From there, the rest of the session will focus on stuff that you want to talk about. The Peer Support Worker will help you celebrate your wins, empower you to embrace yourself and validate your unique recovery experiences. They may also share some of their own story to help normalise and validate your experiences.

Whether the session involves having a coffee and a catch-up, playing a game of Uno, or doing mindful colouring, the Peer Support Worker will always support you in working towards your goals and remind you that recovery can be fun.

After your young person's first headspace appointment, our Peer Support Team will contact you and offer parent/caregiver peer support as part of our wrap-around service. Parent/caregiver peer support is available to anyone within a young person’s life who offers support for their well-being including parents, grandparents, siblings, kinship families, and partners.

Your first meet-up with a Peer Support Worker can be for a chat over a cuppa or something more formal if that's what you prefer. Either way, you are meeting with someone who is a parent or caregiver of a young person who has accessed mental health support.

Your appointment will usually be in a comfortable meeting space. In this session, the focus will be on your needs and how your Peer Support Worker can best support you. A Peer Support Worker can offer support in goal setting, sourcing or decoding information, navigating the mental health care system, self-care, and other opportunities for you to engage with groups and your community. In these sessions, your Peer Support Worker will let you take the lead and listen to what you need help with the most.

Parent/caregiver peer support is available to anyone within a young person’s life who offers support for their wellbeing including:

• Parents
• Grandparents
• Siblings
• Kinship families
• Partners

People with common interests or experiences have always benefited from sharing and supporting each other. Peer Support Workers go a step further and draw on their lived experience to encourage and support young people or their parents/caregivers.

The benefits of peer support include:

· Having gone through a recovery journey themselves, they can empathize with what is happening for you.

· Sharing their experiences so you can see where they were challenged and where they succeeded.

· Encouraging you to work towards goals that will support your wellbeing.

· Sharing information about mental health wellbeing, supporting you to build knowledge, and encouraging self-care.

· Becoming a bridge between you and your clinical supports, to ensure there is a collaborative approach to your treatment and recovery.

Plus, there is a bunch of research that says that having connections to Peer Support Workers can improve your sense of social inclusion and connection, reduce self-stigma about mental ill health, increase your self-esteem, and empower you to feel confident to take control of your recovery.

After you attend your first headspace appointment, our Peer Support Team will reach out by email to see if you would like to meet up with a Peer Support Worker for a chat.

You can also reach out to us in your own time to organise a peer support session by calling the centre or emailing peer.support@liveslivedwell.org.au. If you want to join a peer-led group, visit our Groups page to learn more about what's currently on the go and sign up. You can also call, email, or ask your Clinician for more details about groups or peer support.

Contact our Peer Support Team:

CALL headspace Southport on 5509 5900

EMAIL us at peer.support@liveslivedwell.org.au

ASK your Clinician to help you book a peer support session or for more details