Peer Support for Public Safety Personnel in Canada: Toward a Collective Typology

Date
2022-04-20
Authors
Price, Jill, A. B.
Ogunade, Adeyemi, O
Fletcher, Amber, J.
Ricciardelli, Rosemary
Anderson, Gregory, S.
Cramm, Heidi
Carleton, R. Nicholas
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Abstract

Public safety personnel (PSP) are frequently exposed to potentially psychologically traumatic events (PPTEs) which can impact mental health. To help mitigate the negative effects of PPTEs, PSP commonly rely on peer support. Peer support generally refers to a wide variety of mental health resources that offer social or emotional assistance to a peer, and in some cases professional assistance. Despite the use of and demand for peer support, there is relatively little empirical evidence regarding effectiveness. The evidence gaps regarding peer support effectiveness may be due, in part, to inadequate guidelines and standards of practice that are publicly supported by a consensus among peer support providers. The current study was designed to explore the current conceptualization and implementation of peer support among Canadian PSP using a document analysis. The results indicate that peer support can be conceptualized via three models (i.e., peer-enabled, peer-led, peer-partnership) and implemented via two delivery methods (i.e., program, service). The research team proposed a novel diagram towards a typology of peer support to highlight the diversity in peer support conceptualization and implementation and provide a foundation for the development of mutually agreed-upon language and a shared framework. Overall, the current study can help inform peer support resources within and beyond PSP communities.

Description
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Keywords
peer support, public safety personnel, mental health, typology
Citation
Price, J. A. B., Ogunade, A. O., Fletcher, A. J., Ricciardelli, R., Anderson, G. S., Cramm, H., & Carleton, R. N. (2022). Peer Support for Public Safety Personnel in Canada: Toward a Collective Typology. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 19, 5013. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095013