Supporting Peer Support Workers with Custom Tools
In the Spring of 2020, Health Commons conducted research with clients experiencing homelessness at a COVID-19 recovery site. Inquiring, listening, and looking closely at the client experience enabled us to develop a deeper understanding of how clients can be better informed and more comfortable accessing services. Their experience helped us pinpoint what kind of information and tools can help.
Through the research and design process, we gained a better understanding of the importance of peer workers in different care settings and, in turn, helped the peer team better understand and support their clients. Peer workers’ human-centred, direct, relationship-based approach to daily care aligns closely with our research strategy. As a result, we were able to enhance the valuable work of peers and support their client-centred, needs-based approach through a client journey map and welcome letter tool.
Peers bring a new perspective and offer more comprehensive, ongoing care plans that may be out of scope or impractical in busy, high traffic health care settings. “It’s not just about the medical side that doctors and nurses take care of but all these other aspects of care like housing, safe supply, that contribute to well-being and quality of life,” a Peer Support Worker with The Neighbourhood Group, shared. “That holistic perspective on patient care can change the course of a person’s life.”
We spoke with a Peer Support Worker to learn more about how Health Commons’ research and design process has changed their approach to care on-site: “The most important takeaway from the research was assessing where clients were at when they were entering and leaving the recovery site,” she noted.
“Prior to that research, we only knew what would happen during their stay. We were missing these pieces about how people are feeling before or when they’re being tested. Do they know about the site? Do they know about peer workers? Do they know how they’re going to get to the site? Through the research we’re able to provide more continuity in the care and understand when it makes sense to introduce different services.” Those insights help care teams understand how to support people before they arrive at the door and provide supports that are sustainable after they’ve left. “It really shifted our perspective,” she said.
The Client Journey Map reflects what we heard from clients about their experience before, during, and after arriving at the recovery site.
Creating Tools that Allow Peer Workers to Better Support Clients
Peer support workers are care specialists who offer emotional and social support to clients, backed by a shared lived experience. Useful informational tools like the one we developed can help peer workers support and connect with their clients.
To make tools that work on-site, in-context, one peer we spoke with offers a simple directive: Use client perspectives to build the tools. “That makes the difference,” she explained, underscoring how the design process helped create a useful resource. “It also makes the most sense because they’re going through the experience, at the site, and working through the services.”
And that’s exactly what we did: Health Commons drew on what we heard directly from clients’ experiences and expertise to lead the tool development. A more useful final product emerged by using the information we gathered interviewing and listening to clients. We also consulted closely with peers to integrate their perspectives in the design elements, formatting decisions, and language to ensure the tool was relevant. Taking its final form as a printer-friendly welcome letter, the resource has become a point of reference and ice breaker for the peer and their colleagues, who find it helpful to introduce the services available to clients in a way that is accessible. The welcome letter has become a useful tool for opening up a conversation and creating an opportunity for clients to ask further questions.
The tool also helps set client expectations. By using clear, familiar language and offering a comprehensive snapshot of the services and supports available, clients get a baseline understanding of their care options. “It eliminates a sense of judgement or associated stigma and helps create a safe space,” one peer noted. With clearly stated supports and harm reduction options available clients get a better understanding how peers and other members of the care team can help.
How Peer Workers are Transforming Health Care and Strengthening the COVID-19 Response
Recently, a new initiative is stationing peer workers at the UHN emergency department. The team turned to Health Commons for support adapting resources to help people navigate emergency care. Peer workers ease client interactions with trained health care professionals and create a sense of belonging in an institutional setting that might otherwise be daunting, intimidating, or downright traumatic. Simple and accessible tools and resources help orient clients and support peers in providing holistic care.
The pandemic has made it even more important that peers are present in different health care settings, like the emergency department. “In this time especially, a positive COVID test result brings in a whole other set of concerns,” the peer explained. “People start to worry about their shelter status, having a bed where they’re staying, rehab and recovery, what it entails for their migration status… It adds vulnerability and with those additional concerns that come with it, it’s crucial that peers are there.”
Peers expand the scope of care and address the reality that there is no single solution or treatment for the complex needs associated with well-being. “Each client is unique and has a unique set of needs and concerns that need to be addressed, so peers are constantly learning different ways to approach every situation,” she noted. Using informational tools and expanding the toolkit available to peer workers and care providers helps reflect and respect clients’ diverse needs.
Looking ahead at other tools that could help peers and clients, a peer we connected with identified mental health support resources and/or informational tools as an opportunity to grow. Accessible tools that allow people to understand what services and resources are available to them, even after they have left health system spaces or recovery sites, can help make managing mental health more sustainable for people.
Health Commons is looking forward to supporting peers as they expand their scope of work. “Harm reduction, emotional and social support - all ultimately lead to improved quality of life,” she shared, emphasizing the important role of peers in creating a broader definition of health care. Hopefully, we continue to see these roles being resourced and brought in to settings where an empathetic ally can make a big difference in care delivery and outcomes.
If you’re interested in learning more about Health Commons’ design process or need help developing a tool, get in touch!
Tools You Can Use
Peer support worker welcome letter and recovery site materials (PDF)
COVID recovery site client journey map (PDF)