Peer to Peer Support - how it started

Over a year ago, I posted on an internal blog at work how wonderful my team and others I worked with were.

It was at the time when I was often distracted, at least in part, with caring for one of my children who was suffering suicidal thoughts, serious anxiety, depression, self-harming, selective mutism, etc.

And the people i worked with - made my life so much easier!

I felt writing it would help me, as I cope with the day to day stresses.

I know a lot of people who use “journaling” to help their thought process.

Just the act of writing it down helped.

Little did I know that it was a start of a massive change in my company.

Two days later, I received a phone call from somebody (a total stranger) who explained that recently he had gone thru massive personal tragedy, and was suicidal. He went on to explain that it was his Line Manager who pulled him through & saved his life.  He had recently had an article published in a news magazine, entitled, “Saved from Suicide”.

After a few more minutes in discussion, we thought … wouldn’t it be good if we have a company-wide Mental Health support network.

After a few calls, we had a team and drew up plans.

Everybody we spoke to thought the idea was great.

To cut a very long story short. we teamed up with another group of people who had a similar idea (and piloted a scheme a year earlier) and set up the Peer to Peer Support Network.

The Network, simply provides a list of folks who have been trained, vetted and available to take phone calls/emails from people who need a bit of support. The list is filterable by location or mental health experience - so people can find somebody local to them (or at the other end of the country) who has lived through depression, PTSD, menopause, OCD etc.

Lots of coffee is involved!

We also provide resources for the facilities available in the company or elsewhere (e.g. NHS).  The most important thing, is that we provide a listening ear. Sometimes, just allowing people to talk thru their problems or issues, in a non-judgemental way, is all that is needed. I would not be wrong if I say that lives have been changed because of the Support Network, in fact, I know that lives have been saved. I’m proud to be part of that !

All the folk who are actively volunteering do so in addition to their normal job.  They have all taken time out to attend a day long “mental health awareness” training workshop (a cut down version of the 2-day MHFA course mentioned in my previous post). Each application is vetted, to make sure they are joining for the right reasons – the clear majority are people who have been thru tough times themselves or caring for somebody who has. I also ask for a referee to acknowledge that the applicant is a good listener (which is not always the case!)

We have the full support of the Unions, Welfare, Senior Management, Chief Medical officer, Volunteering team… last year we received the “peoples choice” award, voted from employees throughout the company, as the best idea that year. That means so much!