Peer Group steadily growing

Numbers are steadily increasing, and feedback from participants has been overwhelmingly positive. The peer group is evolving as a welcoming, supportive, and hopeful space for individuals at the beginning of their treatment journey.

The intention behind this group is to complement the clinical care already offered within the Spectrum service. Each session includes reflections on how much we, as facilitators with lived experience, have been helped by treatment, and we regularly affirm the excellent hands participants are in - from our perspective as consumers – at Spectrum. This emphasis is central to our aim of fostering hope and connection among group members.

In addition, in the last session, it included a visit from Dr. Karthika Kasiviswanathan, a member of Spectrum’s research team, who briefly told participants about a study (Consumer perspectives on factors contributing to treatment engagement in a specialist borderline personality disorder service) we are currently recruiting. 

In scheduling this visit, the lived experience team thought about it in two ways: both as a way to orient participants (and put a face) to an important aspect of our service, as well as a way to help boost levels of engagement with the study itself.

The peer group draws on frameworks including Intentional Peer Support, Creative First Aid, as well as our lived experiences navigating the kinds of diagnoses treated within Spectrum and the broader mental health system.

We’re excited to see how the group continues to grow and evolve, and we remain committed to creating a space where lived experience, peer connection, and clinical care come together to support recovery and foster hope.

Does your organisation have a lived experience team? We invite them to reach out to us to find out more about this and other lived experience initiatives at Spectrum.