This evaluation is part of a growing body of work employing the Matter of Focus approach to evaluate peer support approaches where people with lived experience of mental health issues or addictions are trained and employed to support others in recovery.
About the pilot Peer Support Service
The pilot project was set up with the aim of testing peer-based approaches with people already engaged with the Adult Community Mental Health and Alcohol and Drugs services, as part of a wider commitment within the East Renfrewshire Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) towards recovery-oriented approaches.
The service was delivered by the third sector organisation Penumbra – an existing client of ours – with work developed and delivered by a recovery team who aligned closely with wider statutory services.
This was the first formal peer-based service in the HSCP, where people with their own lived experience of recovery work closely with people using services as their peers. It was also the first service operating jointly across alcohol and drugs and mental health.
We were commissioned in 2020 to evaluate the pilot. Given the complexity of the pilot and the context in which the work was being undertaken, our unique theory-based approach to outcome mapping and evaluation, which is based on contribution analysis, is well-suited.
Highlights from the evaluation
From the evidence, we concluded that the service had been carefully and inclusively developed. We were able to describe how the service offered something which was distinctive from and complementary to wider services in the area. It was also clear just how much the peer approach was experienced as different by people in receipt of it.
Building the case for peer support: an Evaluation Stories webinar with East Renfrewshire Health & Social Care Partnership.
Recorded live in February 2022, watch the recording here on our website.
We saw many examples of how the sharing of lived experience helped build trusting relationships and how this, in time, had given people the confidence to make new choices and to embrace opportunities. In some instances, people were able to make seemingly remarkable strides in their recovery during their time in the service.
It was also clear from the data that the peer workers were able and confident in their work and that Penumbra provided a supportive infrastructure for development.
Wider services had enthusiastically embraced this new service and we concluded that this was achieved in large part through a careful and collaborative approach to service design in the HSCP. In particular, service champions played an important part in establishing the credibility and wider awareness of the service within teams, leading to the service quickly reaching full capacity.
The report includes a number of recommendations to build on the success of the pilot, but we would like to highlight how struck we were by the considerable progress that was achieved in the face of the pandemic, which required all partners to adapt and develop their approach in ways which were never envisioned at the outset.
Read the summary findings directly from OutNav
Our evaluation process is held within our software OutNav. A summary of the evaluation, including detailed description of the aims and methods, can be read within this live OutNav report.
Please be aware that OutNav reports are not viewable on small screens of hand-held devices.
Download the full report
Evaluation of the Peer Support Test of Change: East Renfrewshire Health and Social Care Partnership.
Download pdfSharing the learning
There is much to learn from this evaluation about the successful development of peer-based approaches and we are keen to disseminate learning as widely as possible.
In February 2022, we held a live webinar about this work, with guest Tracy Butler, Lead Planner of Recovery Services at East Renfrewshire Health & Social Care Partnership.
There is a great fit between the values and principles of peer-based approaches and our approach to outcome mapping and evaluation. If you are working in this area and would like to have a conversation to learn more, please do get in touch.
Alternatively, you can sign up to our mailing list if you would like to hear about further developments in our work in this area.