Relational Complexity of the Near-Age Peer Support Provider Role in Youth and Young Adult Community Mental Health Settings.

Autor: Klodnick VV; Texas Institute for Excellence in Mental Health, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA. vanessa.klodnick@austin.utexas.edu.; Research & Innovation, Youth & Young Adult Services, Thresholds, Chicago, IL, USA. vanessa.klodnick@austin.utexas.edu., Sapiro B; Department of Social Work and Child Advocacy, Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ, USA., Gold A; Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, Boston, MA, USA., Pearlstein M; Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, Boston, MA, USA.; Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research, Department of Psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA., Crowe AN; Research & Innovation, Youth & Young Adult Services, Thresholds, Chicago, IL, USA., Schneider A; Research & Innovation, Youth & Young Adult Services, Thresholds, Chicago, IL, USA.; School of Social Work, Loyola University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA., Johnson RP; Research & Innovation, Youth & Young Adult Services, Thresholds, Chicago, IL, USA.; Texas Institute for Excellence in Mental Health, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA., LaPelusa B; Research & Innovation, Youth & Young Adult Services, Thresholds, Chicago, IL, USA.; Texas Institute for Excellence in Mental Health, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA., Holland H; Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, Boston, MA, USA.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: The journal of behavioral health services & research [J Behav Health Serv Res] 2024 Oct; Vol. 51 (4), pp. 545-560. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Feb 27.
DOI: 10.1007/s11414-024-09877-4
Abstrakt: Increasingly, US community mental health settings are integrating professional near-age youth peer support providers to improve youth service engagement and outcomes. Youth peer specialists (YPS) use their lived and living experiences with a mental health diagnosis to validate, empathize, and provide individualized support, while also improving their program's overall responsiveness to young people's needs. Although promising, these roles tend to lack clarity-responsibilities vary immensely, and turnover is high. Examining near-age youth peer on-the-job experiences is needed to design effective on-the-job supports. Using community-based participatory action research methods, young adults with lived experience worked in partnership with a PhD-level qualitative researcher to design, recruit, conduct, and analyze in-depth-interviews with current and former near-age youth peer providers. Ten young adult peer mentors in Massachusetts completed interviews that revealed near-age youth peer role relational complexity. Five relational aspects were identified requiring relational practice skills and self-awareness, including relationships with (1) self, (2) clients, (3) supervisors, (4) non-peer colleagues, and (5) other near-age peer providers. Near-age peers experience relationship-related struggles with non-peer identified colleagues who do not understand nor value the near-age peer role. Findings expand on current near-age peer practice and associated on-the-job challenges. Training, supervision, and professional development activities that target these five relational areas may improve YPS on-the-job wellbeing, decrease YPS turnover, and improve youth client outcomes.
(© 2024. National Council for Mental Wellbeing.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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