Barker, Stephanie, Bishop, Felicity, Scott, Elizabeth Grace Bodley, Stopa, Lusia and Maguire, Nicholas (2020) Developing a model of change mechanisms within Intentional Unidirectional Peer Support (IUPS). European Journal of Homelessness, 14 (2), 97-127.
Abstract
Peers are those with lived experiences of adversity and are
commonly utilised in services. However, little is known about change mechanisms, resulting in undefined concepts and weak assertions on peer supports’effectiveness. Further, peer interventions are becoming increasingly commonin homelessness services, without the theoretical understanding to support it.This review systematically explores literature to close this gap. Iterativesearches from PsychINFO, PsychARTICLES, PubMED, MEDLINE, CINAHL,
Web of Science, and grey literature resulted in 71 included sources. Through
realist synthesis, a model of client and peer pathways through peer support
was developed. Through inclusion of literature from multiple health contexts
(i.e. homelessness, mental health, addiction, and criminal justice), the review
identified mechanisms of working alliances, role modelling, experience-based
social support, and processes of becoming a peer-supporter. The model
asserts that 1) the working alliance quality influences client/peer outcomes, 2)
clients learn behaviours modelled by peers, 3) peer outcomes are mediated
by being a role model, 4) peers provide social support, impacting client/peer
outcomes, and 5) training, supervision, and support are directly linked to peersupporters’ effectiveness.
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