Grant: Patient-Oriented Research Collaboration Grants

One Canadian out of five has a mental disorder, making for significant societal healthcare expenditures. Complementing traditional care by professionals, peer-support (i.e. organised support provided by and for patients) is promising. However, the uptake of peer-support in mental health services in Canada has been limited. Most research has documented the barriers faced by peer-supporters, such as poor work conditions leading to burnout. Although anecdotal evidence suggests that some peer-support initiatives have been successful, research has never examined those initiatives. The study aims to develop a multi-provincial patient-oriented research collective supporting the engagement of patients in conducting evidence-based research to identify and disseminate mental health peer-support best practices. This will inform the policymaking activities of the study's main partner: Peer Support Accreditation and Certification Canada (PSACC). Inspired by action-research and patient engagement models, patients with lived experience of mental disorder, alongside clinicians, researchers and stakeholders, will co-lead the project, participate in a virtual community and in peer-research assistantship. The virtual community will decide on the indicators of successful peer-support initiatives. A survey will then be sent out to other patients and experts to nominate 8 to 12 initiatives. Multiple qualitative case studies with key informants (N=60) from these initiatives will identify the factors of successful peer-support integration. An online survey on patients' perceptions of peer-support and its outcomes will be piloted with 100 patients. The integrated knowledge mobilization activities (e.g., videos, factsheets) supported by PSACC will raise awareness on successfully integrated peer-support. An evaluation will allow to improve the patient-oriented research structure, to ensure its sustainability so it serves as a catalyst for more research on mental health peer-support.