peer support training

peer support–mental health & substance use

We know that Peer Support is an important part of Recovery-Oriented services in the Mental Health and Addictions system. (See the MHCC’s document Making the Case for Peer Support.)

peer support in the workplace

Many businesses and organizations outside of mental health are also realizing the power of peer support.

Jenn Cusick has extensive experience with Peer Support:

She managed a Peer Support team for 15 years.
She spearheaded WRAP in Western Canada.
She has consulted on peer support for several agencies.
She wrote a Peer Support Training Curriculum for Alberta Health Services.

Jenn understands mental health challenges from a first-hand perspective:
-as a mental health professional
-as someone with personal mental health struggles
-as a family member

peer support training curriculum offerings:

BC Provincial Peer Support Training
Jenn Cusick wrote this curriculum for the province of BC. For more information about these offerings, please click here.

Foundations of Support: A Peer Perspective

This training was written for Alberta Health Services in 2019 and it is cutting edge and based on both new, and evidence-based research.

It is written to support those who are stepping into a peer, or any layperson support role. Supporting others can be tricky business. It is very easy to step into a peer role with the best of intentions, but unintentionally cause harm to someone.

Foundations of Support: A Peer Perspective is a guide on how to challenge old long-held beliefs about supporting others. The foundational of this training is based on cultivating compassion, connecting with an empathetic approach, noticing and challenging our judgments & biases, supporting someone else’s self-determination, and avoiding advice-giving.

This training addresses how we as humans often want to advise, fix and save others, but when we do that we are basically telling them that they are fragile, AND we are stealing their self-determination.

Instead we choose to support others to develop their inner expert/teacher...through connection, and by creating safe environments that celebrate resiliency, and build on strengths.

We create environments where we are able to sit together with someone in their discomfort and pain.

Presence. It’s all about presence.

Foundations of Support:
Peer Support Training: Table of Contents:

In 2019 Jenn Cusick completed the Foundations of Support peer support training program (based on the Peer Support Canada knowledge matrix). This training was funded by Alberta Health Services and Mental Health Recovery Partners-South Island. The following is the table of contents for that training.