In peer support people with lived experience of mental health conditions and recovery offer support hope and encouragement to others, currently in crisis. This intervention has shown promising results in the recovery and empowerment of persons with mental health problems in various contexts and is recommended in various guidelines such as the S3 guideline in Germany.
The UPSIDES project (www.upsides.org) is a cooperation of eight international study partners in Africa, Asia, and Europe. Based on a shared understanding of mental health conditions and recovery the UPSIDES intervention was developed and is currently implemented to scale up peer support in different contexts. The UPSIDES intervention will be evaluated in a multi-center randomized controlled trial at six study sites in Uganda, Tanzania, India, Israel and Germany
Different speaker of the international UPSIDES consortium will target peer support with a focus on global innovation in mental health systems. The UPSIDES project and intervention will be presented. Throughout the last year, UPSIDES peer support workers were trained in a 12 module core training to deliver peer support in order to enhance the social inclusion of people with mental health conditions. In this pilot phase, 45 peer support workers were trained at the six implementations sites by trainer tandems with professional and lived experience. The symposium will offer first experiences from the implementation sites, with a deeper inside in the mental health systems of 3 low- or middle-income countries.
17:30 Uhr
UPSIDES: development of a global peer support intervention
Rebecca Nixdorf, Hamburg (Germany)
Candelaria Mahlke, Hamburg (Germany)
Imke Heuer, Hamburg (Germany)
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Autor:innen:
Rebecca Nixdorf, Hamburg (Germany)
Candelaria Mahlke, Hamburg (Germany)
Imke Heuer, Hamburg (Germany)
Introduction: Peer support has shown promising results in the recovery and empowerment of persons with mental health problems (Farkas & Boevink, 2018). The UPSIDES project (Puschner et al., 2019) is a cooperation of eight international study partners in Africa, Asia, and Europe, to develop, implement, and scale up peer support in different contexts. Therefore, an intervention and training manual were developed.
Method. The development of the UPSIDES peer support intervention and training will be presented. The concept of the UPSIDES peer support intervention and training was developed based on three systematic reviews (Ibrahim et al. 2020; Charles et al. 2020; Nixdorf & Charles et al. in preparation), a situation analysis and peer support training manuals implemented in the UPSIDES consortium. In a second step the training concept was delivered in a 5-day train-the-trainer workshop with n = 16 trainers with either lived experience or a profession in mental health. Afterwards, in a third step the training was piloted with n = 43 training participants at six study sites in Kampala (Uganda), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Gujarat (India), Ber Sheva (Israel), Ulm and Hamburg (Germany). Service users received UPSIDES peer support over a period of six weeks afterwards. Each step was evaluated using a mixed-method design of questionnaires, focus groups, interviews and expert consultation.
Results: The UPSIDES intervention and training manual, exemplary materials as well as the developmental process will be presented.
Discussion: The global applicability of the intervention and training will be discussed. The aim throughout the development was to take the perspective of all study partners into account. In order to guarantee the comparability of the intervention across all study sites, important core elements of peer support were identified. At the same time, to account for regional flexibility, additional intervention elements were developed.
17:40 Uhr
Implementation of the UPSIDES peer support intervention: first experiences from Israel and Germany
Lisa Wenzel, Ulm (Germany)
Galia Moran, Beersheba (Israel)
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Autor:innen:
Lisa Wenzel, Ulm (Germany)
Galia Moran, Beersheba (Israel)
Introduction: In peer support people with lived experience of mental health conditions and recovery offer support hope and encouragement to others, currently in crisis. This intervention has shown promising results in the recovery and empowerment of persons with mental health problems in various contexts, e.g. in Israel the consumer movement is growing since the 1980th (Moran et al., 2018).
The UPSIDES project (www.upsides.org) is a cooperation of eight international study partners in Africa, Asia, and Europe. Based on a shared understanding of mental health conditions and recovery the UPSIDES intervention was developed and is currently implemented to scale up peer support in different contexts.
Method. The UPSIDES intervention was implemented in a 6-week pilot phase and is currently under evaluation in a multi-center randomized controlled trial at six study sites in Uganda, Tanzania, India, Israel and Germany. To support the implementation an implementation plan and manual was developed to guide the study sites in setting up the peer support training, the peer support itself, supervision for the peer support workers, and to prepare the organizations.
Results: The core elements of the UPSIDES intervention plan along with first experiences from Israel will be presented.
Discussion: Challenges in implementing a global mental health peer support intervention will be discussed.
References:
Moran, G. S. (2018). The mental health consumer movement and peer providers in Israel. Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences, 27(5), 420-426.
17:50 Uhr
Peer support: experiences from Uganda, Tanzania and India
Jasmine Kalha, Pune (India)
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Autor:in:
Jasmine Kalha, Pune (India)
Introduction: In peer support people with lived experience of mental health conditions and recovery offer support hope and encouragement to others, currently in crisis. This intervention has shown promising results in the recovery and empowerment of persons with mental health problems in various contexts. In low- and middle-income countries peer support is also seen as an underutilized resource to deal with the treatment gap (Pathare et al., 2018).
The UPSIDES project (www.upsides.org) is a cooperation of eight international study partners in Africa, Asia, and Europe. Based on a shared understanding of mental health conditions and recovery the UPSIDES intervention was developed and is currently implemented to scale up peer support in different contexts.
Method. The UPSIDES intervention was implemented in a 6-week pilot phase and is currently under evaluation in a multi-center randomized controlled trial at six study sites in Uganda, Tanzania, India, Israel and Germany.
Results: A brief introduction to the mental health system in India along with first experiences with implementing the UPSIDES peer support from the study site in Gujarat (India) will be presented.
Discussion: Challenges in implementing a global mental health peer support intervention will be discussed.
References:
Pathare, S., Kalha, J., & Krishnamoorthy, S. (2018). Peer support for mental illness in India: an underutilized resource. Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences, 27(5), 415-419.
18:00 Uhr
Peer support and corona: challenges and outlook
Grace Ryan, London (United Kingdom)
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Autor:in:
Grace Ryan, London (United Kingdom)
Introduction: The UPSIDES project is a cooperation of eight international study partners, carrying out implementation research in high- (Germany, Israel), lower middle- (India), and low-income (Tanzania, Uganda) settings. Based on a shared understanding of mental health conditions and recovery, the UPSIDES intervention was developed and is currently implemented to scale up peer support for people with severe mental health conditions in different contexts. As personal contact is vital for peer support to function, UPSIDES’ multi-site randomised controlled trial was facing challenges as a result of COVID-19.
Method: Just a few months after the start of participant recruitment at the beginning of 2020, the UPSIDES intervention had to be put on hold following the outbreak. Several measures including guidelines and online resources were developed after conducting a situation analysis. Crisis contacts ensured that participants stayed connected to their peers. In addition, efforts were made to engage exchange between all study partners.
Results: Different challenges were observed at each study site. Especially in low- and middle-income countries, the measures taken in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic put peer support workers and their peers in vulnerable situations. The key points of the situation analysis, as well as main difficulties of the individual study sites during the outbreak, are presented.
Discussion: First conclusions and recommendations based on the consortium's reflections on the difficulties during corona restrictions are given. Efforts should be redoubled not only to make up for lost time but also to regain lost ground in mental health care reform. In the long-term, we would advocate for more public-funded, paid peer positions within mental health services.