Peer Workers are people who are employed in the mental health sector to add the ‘Peer’ perspective to the mental health work done. They are usually employed in places like hospitals, community mental health and in state funded programs in the non-government sector.

Mental Health Peer Leaders NSW (that’s us …) supports the employment of ‘community-based’ Peer Leaders in not-for-profit organisations to lead mental health support activities in the community. It’s often hard to get funding to get Peer Leaders to work in community-based settings because it’s not at the ‘pointy end’ of the mental health system, when people are feeling acute mental distress. This is where the doctors, mental health nurses, psychiatrists and other mental health professionals work.

Mental Health Peer Leaders NSW will raise money to enable non-government community organisations to employ Peer Leaders and we will raise awareness of the importance of Peer Leaders working in the community.

If you’re interested to find out more about Peer Workers you can check out the Peer Work Hub at the NSW Mental Health Commission https://www.nswmentalhealthcommission.com.au/content/peer-work-hub
or at the website of NSW Health here https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/mentalhealth/professionals/Pages/peer-workers.aspx

Check out the work that Peer Leaders do at organisations like One Door Mental Health, GROW and WayAhead working in community-based support groups as both volunteers and paid workers:
https://www.onedoor.org.au/support-groups
https://understandinganxiety.wayahead.org.au/support-groups/
https://grow.org.au/grow-program/