中華心理衛生協會

Purpose: Peer support service is a recovery-oriented intervention for persons with mental illness. In this pilot study, we investigated an extended vocational rehabilitation service that is co-delivered by trained peers and occupational therapists. We assessed the outcomes for the peer support workers as well as the satisfaction of the people who used this service. Methods: In a community rehabilitation center, six trained peers with schizophrenia and 2 occupational therapists cooperated to provide long-term care skill training services for 46 persons with schizophrenia (2 hours every week) and a workplace problem-solving group (1.5 hours every 2 weeks) for 16 weeks between September 2017 and December 2018. Before and after providing services, the 6 trained peers completed measures related to their perceived social support, psychiatric symptoms, mental health, and social and global functioning. They also provided employment data. After each skill-training session, the service users assessed the attitude and performance of their peers, and also rated the impact of and their satisfaction with the program. Results: The service users rated their peers highly, with a mean service satisfaction score of 4.7 ± 0.6 (1 - 5). The 6 peer support workers experienced a significant increase in social support from friends or peers and increased weekly income (both p< 0.05). The other variables examined (psychiatric symptoms, mental health, and global functioning) did not show a significant change. Conclusions: The peer support services program examined had an overall positive impact on the peer service providers. These results need further evaluation with a larger scale study on a longer time frame to determine whether benefits not observed in this study may be obtained over a longer time period or with more participants in the program.