Peer Organisations operate among a disability sector where the NDIA/NDIS occupy a lead role. Peer organisations are most likely to gain the funding essential to deliver peer support programs from the NDIA under projects such as the Information, Linkages and Capacity Building (ILC) Grants scheme. As such, peer organisations will likely be functioning with the same clear foundation principles as the NDIS.
User-led organisations and/or those running peer support programs are no doubt strong supporters of these foundation principles. As such, this resource has been developed with a strong rights-based underlying philosophy which will be clear throughout each module.
The Social Policy Research Centre (SPRC) recently reviewed current peer support programs across Australia and, in May 2018, published a practice review (Davy, Fisher and Wehbe, 2018). This report identified a range of broader benefits from peer support including: The development of an informed and engaged disability community, together with awareness and capacity building within mainstream services, as well as, the wider community about inclusive strategies and engaging with people with disability and their families.
One implication from this review was the finding that ‘despite variation in peer support delivery, common values and principles of good practice peer support emerged’ (p1). Research participants included a range of leading peer support providers from across Australia with expertise and experience in this space. They described good practice peer support as:
- Flexible – Responsive to participant needs and preferences;
- User-led – Led by people with disability and families, based around lived experience;
- Focused on capacity building – Predominantly for individuals;
- Semi-structured and purposeful – Organised with a blend of issues and information-based content along with informal or unstructured forms of support; and,
- Community facilitated and based/linked – Reflecting the need for the peer program to be facilitated through a community organisation to enable participant connections, and for it to have a focus on forging links with others in the community (other peer groups, mainstream organisations, services and government).
As such, in this learning package, we will be assuming we are aiming to assist disability focussed peer organisations who provide delivery models that are unique but aligned with these principles of best practice. This will all be discussed further in future Modules.
