Peer-to-peer support is when people with similar experiences or challenges help each other. This helps in two main areas: personal and professional growth. You might think of peer-to-peer support as tech experts helping each other in online forums, and you’d be right, but there are many more people who can offer peer-to-peer support.
Anyone who is a peer can deliver this kind of support. A peer is somebody who is on your level and can relate to you in some way – for example, a colleague in work. It’s someone that shares the same experiences with you so they are able to help you out when you run into trouble.
You may think of peer-to-peer support as just troubleshooting advice, but it really offers so much more. It’s very similar to self-service support, which is a way of helping customers without intervention.
Here are the key benefits of peer-to-peer support
1. Emotional Help:
Sharing struggles with others who understand can reduce feelings of loneliness and stress, improving overall mental health.
2. Learning Together:
Sharing knowledge and skills in an informal setting helps individuals learn from each other, saving the company time and money.
3. Better Problem-solving:
Working with peers helps develop critical thinking and creativity as you come up with your own solutions to problems.
4. Professional Growth:
Peer interactions help develop essential skills like communication, teamwork, and conflict resolution.
5. Developing Confidence:
Peer support settings encourage equal communication and trust-building without fear of being evaluated.
Peer-to-peer support can take various forms
1. Online forums and groups
2. In-person support groups
3. Mentorship programs
4. Phone or video calls
5. Social media communities
Deeper in the context of mental health, peer-to-peer support can:
1. Build a sense of belonging – being part of a group that helps each other with their troubleshooting and problem-solving fosters belonging.
2. Encourage self-care – avoiding leaving problems unsolved encourages self-care because it increases self-esteem.
3. Offer ways to cope – when you’re overwhelmed with your work you can use peer-to-peer to gain support.
4. Encourage self-awareness – peer-to-peer support gives self-awareness to those engaging in in-person support groups.
5. Encourage recovery – if you’re in mental health support groups then they can encourage recovery through peer-to-peer support.
Effective peer support comprises the following
1. Active listening – active listening is trying to really hear what the other person is saying so you can formulate an effective response.
2. Empathy and understanding – feeling empathy and understanding for your peers helps you provide a great response.
3. A non-judgmental viewpoint – withholding judgment is a key practice of effective peer-to-peer support because then you can work with all sorts of different people.
4. Be respectful of limits – make sure you know how far you can push the people in your peer-to-peer support group so you don’t upset them.
5. Open communication – practicing open communication helps with peer-to-peer support because everyone feels they are in a trusting environment.
Individuals can use peer-to-peer support to:
1. Make them feel better – gaining support from their peers results in an increase in positive feelings.
2. Build self-confidence – having your problems solved in a peer-to-peer support group builds confidence in the future.
3. Improve relationships – in groups you can gain some relationships from your peers through their helping you.
4. Increase awareness – working together with others leads to better self-awareness and awareness of others.
5. Achieve personal growth – peer-to-peer support allows you to grow through gaining the insights of others.
Conclusion
Peer-to-peer support is powerful. It helps people connect emotionally, learn skills, solve problems, grow professionally, and build trust. Organizations can benefit from encouraging this type of support and best of all, it grows organically from the ground up so requires very little investment.
Allowing peer-to-peer support to grow within your organization can lead to flourishing confidence and problem-solving success among your employees. Just provide a platform for peer-to-peer and let your peers do the rest.
Sources:
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
- World Health Organisation (WHO)
https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240025783
By Catherine Heath (Freelance B2B SaaS and Customer Support Writer and Marketing Advocate)
Catherine is a freelance writer based in Manchester. Blogs. Copy. Documentation. She believes in ditching the jargon – just give her plain writing.
In collaboration with Syed Abdul Qadir Gilani (a Python developer and data scientist),
Find Syed on LinkedIn.
