Follow-up Training for Peer Supporters

An important part of any peer support program is the on-going training support team members receive. It would be superficial to think people can complete a two or three day course, then not require any further skills or development to function well in a support role. Effective peer support teams have on-going training and team development integrated into their program.

How often should a team have on-going training?

For many organisations the question is likely to be... how often can a team have on-going training?

This depends on a number of factors, including the type of team, geographic issues and organisational policy. Some peer support teams have a meeting, or half-day training session every three months, while others have full-day sessions every six months, with a number of informal meetings in between.

What type of topics or skills can be covered at training sessions?

For most teams, a review of team activity is important, as it gives members a chance to ask questions and learn from the experiences of others. The range of activities is large and could include the following:

• A presentation on a new topic
• Video presentation
• Update on new information relating to the team
• Review of policies and procedures in use
• Incident scenarios followed by a group discussion
• Role-plays of situations the team may deal with
• Guest speaker from another peer support team
• Practice of specific defusing / debriefing skills
• Information on how other teams dealt with a specific situation (eg. major incident which attracted a lot of media coverage)
• Review of literature awareness raising programs being used by the team