Welcome to our online Peer Support training, developed with the Peer2Peer training program.

Peer2Peer is an innovative course designed to prepare people with lived experience of mental health problems to be employed in peer support roles and support others in their recovery.

This course will provide you with the knowledge, skills and experience to provide information peer support, and outline the skills and knowledge required to be in a paid peer support role. (Please note, if you are a professional wishing to take this course, please take our ‘Peer Support for Professionals’s course).

This free course is designed to meet five learning outcomes. Learning outcomes are statements that describe what you will be able to do as a result of the learning. These outcomes will help tutors to focus on what they want the students to achieve and help you to understand what is expected of you.

People successfully completing the course will be able to:

• Explore the development of the recovery approach in mental health• Explain peer support and its role in recovery
• Demonstrate the development of relationships based on peer support values
• Apply strengths based approaches in the peer support role
• Demonstrate an awareness of how to practice safely and effectively in the formalised peer support role

These five learning outcomes are delivered through the course which comprises 12 sessions: an introductory session; nine sessions covering a range of topics; and two assessment sessions (mid-point and final).

This course is going to focus on wellness and recovery, and the importance of creating peer relationships which focus on the individual and their whole life. That means taking a whole person approach rather than diagnosis and symptom approach.

During the course students will be encouraged to draw on and share of themselves. This is in order to facilitate learning and skills development. Please remember that you should only share what you are comfortable with and it is your responsibility to keep themselves safe. The course is a learning rather than a therapeutic experience.

You will be provided with support resources throughout the course, as the content of the course may be challenging due to the subject matter and the nature of self-reflection during assessment.