The Peer Project – Moving Forward May 2012 update
It has been a while since you received an update, however, good progress has been made on a number of fronts and there has also been a change in my own circumstances that I wish to share with you.
Since the last update, I retired from the Canadian military in order to pursue working in the field of mental health and will remain on as an advisor to the MHCC Peer Project, working closely with Sapna Mahajan, Manager of Executive Affairs and Special Projects at the MHCC, until March, 2013 when the Peer Project under the MHCC comes to a close. The MHCC is committed to the full spectrum of peer support and for this reason the Peer Project has refocused and by March 2013 will have created National Guidelines for the Practice of Peer Support, which will include training guidelines. These national guidelines will have a broader application than had been originally envisaged under this project
The newly created certification and accreditation body, referred to in the next section of this update, has committed to the Commission that it will ensure congruence with the national guidelines in conducting its work related to the development of national standards of practice for the purpose of certification.
Between now and March 2013, Sapna will also be working closely with other areas of the MHCC, including the Service Systems Advisory Committee and the Family and Caregiver Advisory Committee, to address the full spectrum of peer support and ensure all of the MHCC’s work that is focused on peer support is coordinated and integrated into other projects where appropriate. As such, we co-authored this update.
This update provides preliminary information about the transition that will take place over the next twelve months as the MHCC Peer Project comes to an end and as the newly created accreditation body picks up speed and momentum.
In addition, this update contains information about the second peer leadership meeting that was held this past winter, peer support training, the evaluation research study and the pilot sites initiative.
Second peer leadership meeting held January 31 - February 1, 2012
The Peer Support Leadership Team provides advice and guidance to the Peer Project. This group has representation from almost every province and territory. Click here
A number of topics related to the Standards of Practice were discussed during the meeting which took place this past winter including:
the designation titles for certification credentials
the experience component of the standards of practice and
the certification process.
In addition, the issue of accessibility for certification (literacy, geographic, financial, etc.) led to the decision to create a sub-committee to deal with this important topic.
Your peer support leadership group now has 5 sub-committees:
1 – Standards of Practice
2 – Knowledge/Curriculum 3 – Communications & PR 4 – Governance
5 – Accessibility
A number of areas were identified as requiring special attention and consideration as we move forward in defining the certification process including:
how to fast track certification for those who already have significant experience in providing peer support;
how assessments will be conducted at each stage in the certification process;
the need to develop a formula for establishing equivalencies; and
the need to keep certification timelines flexible.
All of these issues have been documented and will be factored in as we move forward.
The Peer Leadership team was also updated on the creation of the new certification and accreditation body which was legally incorporated last December. It is named Peer Support Accreditation Certification (Canada) and the acronym is PSAC (Canada). It is a completely separate and independent organization from the Mental Health Commission of Canada.
It is expected to take a minimum of between 18 and 24 months for PSAC (Canada) to develop the required processes and internal capacity to provide certification services, and this includes finalizing the standards of practice.
Peer Support Training & Curriculum
Over the last two years as the Peer Project evolved, increased cooperation and sharing has taken place between organizations with experience in peer support training. It is apparent that many training programs exist across Canada, and that more organizations are willing to share their knowledge through a developing community of practice. This has made the MHCC
reconsider the need to develop a new curriculum. Hence, work on the curriculum ceased at the end of March, and the guidelines of practice for peer support will include training guidelines based on the work completed.
However, since the last update, we did conduct pilot testing of the curriculum developed to date under the leadership of Wendy Mishkin, of the BC Schizophrenia Society Victoria Branch, assisted by Donna Hardaker of CMHA York. The pilot course was offered at the end of February in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Sincere thanks go to Wendy, Donna and Liz Atkins from CMHA
Edmonton for facilitating the training and to Chris Summerville of the Manitoba Schizophrenia Society for organizing logistics for the pilot course. The pilot allowed us to establish what went well and where improvements need to be made in order to move forward with the guidelines for training.
Evaluation research study and pilot sites testing
In addition to all of the above, we have been developing implementation plans for workplace peer support programs. The workplace pilot sites will allow us to begin building the evidence base for peer support and its benefits to the workplace as part of an evaluation research study.
This component is proceeding as planned with implementation to start in the fall. We sincerely
thank Sandy Palinski for successfully leading this initiative until the end of March 2012 and we welcome Kim Sunderland aboard in her place.
In order to evaluate the outcomes and impact of peer support in the workplace, it is imperative that we collect data for many years, and for this reason, PSAC (Canada) has taken a leadership role in this area. From this point on, PSAC (Canada) will be responsible for managing the evaluation research study, in collaboration with the Center for Addictions and Mental Health, the University of Ottawa and the Centre for Disease Control - Atlanta.Preliminary outcome results from the pilots sites are expected to be reported to the MHCC in the summer of 2013.
The Mental Health Strategy for Canada
The Mental Health Strategy for Canada is a plan to promote better mental health, prevent mental illness where possible, and ensure that services and supports are there to foster recovery for people who need them. It’s about fixing the mental health system so it can better meet the needs of the diverse population groups across our country, including new Canadians as well as First Nations, Inuit and Métis. To succeed, all of us need to work together to bring about change.
The Strategy was launched on May 8th 2012. This is a significant milestone for Canada as it was the only G8 country without a Mental Health Strategy. The work of this project as well as Making the Case for Peer Support is highlighted in the Strategy and there are three specific
recommendations relating to peer support.
Increase appropriately resourced peer support initiatives in both independent, peer-run agencies and mainstream settings.
Increase peer support opportunities for families.
Develop nationally recognized guidelines for peer support, in collaboration with peer support organizations.
Conclusion
The Peer Project has now embarked on the last 12 months of its journey and two streams of work emanating from the MHCC Peer Project have now started to take their interconnected but naturally divergent paths. While the Peer Project comes to an end the newly created
accreditation body will start to develop, build its capacity and eventually begin to deliver certification and accreditation services.
The MHCC remains committed to the full spectrum of peer support, and now the national guidelines for the practice of peer support will have a broader application than the national standards of practice. Meanwhile PSAC (Canada) will focus on developing the capacity and processes that lead to providing certification services to peer support workers on a voluntary basis as well as gathering the evidence base for peer support, starting in workplaces.
Those of you who recently attempted to write to Stephane at the Peer Project e-mail address were redirected to my new e-mail address at s.grenier@mhic-cism.com . I hope this update helps you to understand this change.
You can expect to be kept periodically informed as work progresses over the course of this year, and Sapna and I would like to sincerely thank all of you for your interest and support.
Stéphane Grenier & Sapna Mahajan
Advisor to the Peer Project Manager of Executive Affairs and Special Projects Mental Health Commission of Canada
