Peer Advocacy by a Peer for Peers

What Peer Advocacy Is

My name is Vivien Limon and I have a mental health diagnosis. My diagnosis is schizoaffective disorder. It's a combination of schizophrenia (hear or see hallucinations) and a mood disorder (affective). In this case, it's bipolar I. I go through deep depression and mania both through the year and during the day. Does this mean I have a life sentence of mental hospitals and my symptoms? Not at all. In fact, I'm not enslaved to them at all. I have been in mental hospitals--mostly one that probably knows everything about me. Do I have symptoms? Most of the time. Does it stop me from doing what I want? Not at all. I am mostly able to do what I want. There are issues still. But who doesn't have issues, right? In fact, I work. I work doing what I know best...as a peer who has a diagnosis of a mental illness helping other peers. This book is a chance for me to hopefully help people, educate people, and inspire people. It's not a labor of love as many authors say. In fact, it's painful. But in the end, it's as if all the bad stuff is expelled and what's left is new again. But that's what it's like for a lot of my peers (and me).

As a peer, we don't say that another peer has a mental illness. That means the illness is as big as the peer. No, we say they have a diagnosis because that's how we, as peers, own it. The diagnosis is never as big as the person, never. It's also not the only thing that makes up the peer, just as one aspect never makes up a person. A peer is a person with all the wonderful, different facets of their being. This means that, no matter how helpful someone is trying to be, when they use the "wrong" language to describe the peer of the peer's journey, this hurts the relationship instead of strengthening it. Yes, there is a Recovery Language. It's kind of difficult to master but when one does, the lives of everyone becomes more positive. For example, in Recovery Language, we don't blame the person we're talking about. We also stay positive in discussing people. So instead of saying a peer is not trying (say, maybe the peer is not taking his meds), we say that he/she has challenges. This is if it is even allowed. In some places discussing peers' cases may not even be allowed by law.

Peer Advocacy or Peer Support hasn't been around a long time but it has become a choice solution for many mental health systems because of it's real world ability to help many with mental illness. First off, what is a peer? A peer is someone who shares many of the same situations as you. In this case, a peer is someone who also has a mental illness. Peer advocacy or peer support is a a way of approaching mental illness by using peers to help other peers along the journey to recovery.

Recovery is the key to peer advocacy. A person with mental illness might never lose the illness or even the symptoms but the recovery model states that they can get better. This occurs on a spectrum with movement along it that never settles in one place. A person with a mental illness diagnosis can choose to try to get better as much as they can. They do this by using whatever positive ways they can, anything from spirituality to working.


Part of peer advocacy is having a strong network around. A peer advocate provides another member of that network for another peer or possibly the only member of a network. Many peers are alone because those around them don't understand the illness. So they give up on them or it becomes too much for them to handle. Honestly, some mental illnesses and even the symptoms are frightening, not just to others around them but sometimes to the peer. The first time I went to the hospital for my mental illness frightened me more than my family. I tried to hurt myself to show blood. The angels that I heard in my mind told me that demons didn't like blood and I thought a family member was a demon. I knew the minute before and the minute afterwards that she was a family member, but in that split-second, I thought she was a demon and I needed to show blood. So, I hurt myself. Not bad. But enough to scare everyone. Sometimes, a part of that is trying to talk to the family and see if they can support the consumer. Sometimes, pointing them in the right direction is more than enough. Sometimes, that's all they need is a support network for themselves. There are several national organizations that do this. They even offer classes in how to deal with the family members' mental illness. I like to suggest NAMI and for the peer, MHA and DBSA. Education and support for everyone is key to maintaining the family's health.

Having a peer help out another peer is also good because the guiding peer can relate to the struggles that a peer might have. Their lived experience is also a shared experience. They can use it to talk :"straight' to the peer. Oftentimes, the peer getting help feels more comfortable talking with the guiding peer than maybe, a clinician (social worker, psychiatrist, psychologist) because they do understand what they are going through. It's not just information gleaned from textbooks and case studies. It's the real thing. It's comparable to success mentors saying that a person should be around successful people in order to grow and be more successful. Peers around other peers who might be further along in their recovery journey, often find themselves moving along in their own journey of recovery. A guiding peer also can give valuable tips to the peer she is helping. These can be about dealing with their mental illness, dealing with their family, taking care of their medication situation, and many other things. Perhaps the guiding peer becomes a mentor to the peer, perhaps not.

Peers advocates (or peer supporters, peer specialists) can also help develop strengths-based goals with the peer. These are always coming from the strengths of the peers. And there is no penalty for falling back a step or two.

Another aspect of peer advocacy/peer support which is often overlooked is the group aspect. Sometimes, being in a peer-led support group is a way to encourage recovery. It might be a group which just allows peers to discuss how they feel at the moment or what happened over the week or weekend. Other times, the group might be a group that just encourages play or social interaction. I've run groups as different as journaling and sports talk to the WRAP plan. In fact, Mary Ellen Copeland's Wellness and Recovery Action Plan is a great way for peers to set up an "action plan" in case they hit speed bumps in their recovery.

For peers working in a mental health organization, they provide a way of navigating through the mental health system to new peers or peers who are having difficulties finding their way in the system.