Innovation details
The peer support program of HeartSounds Uganda is a two-year pilot developed collaboratively by mental health professionals and people with lived experience of mental illness in Uganda. It was designed to create a continuity of care between inpatient and outpatient services without overburdening existing mental health specialist staff.
The reasons for engaging peer support workers are numerous:
- Service users benefit from training, socialization, and employment as PSWs
- Recently discharged service users and their families receive sympathetic psychosocial support
- PSWs serve as “role models” of recovery, inspiring clients and reducing stigma in the community
- Services benefit from increased involvement of consumers
PSWs were central not only to the creation of the program, but also to ongoing training, service delivery and administration. Hospital staff provide some additional support and supervision, but the program is largely driven by service users. PSWs carry out the following roles:
- Serve at Butabika Hospital (the National Referral Office), manning the office, leading group discussion and identifying potential recipients of peer support services
- Accompany the existing community mental health team for outreach and conduct independent home visits
- Support each other through fortnightly meetings
- Trained to provide primary care support for people recently discharged from hospital and their families, using:
- Narrative methods such as “Tree of Life”
- Communication skills
- Recovery concepts
- Wellness Recovery Action Plans
- Guidance around self-disclosure
