Suicide Bereavement Adults in Australia: Peer Support - Essay Example

Peer support for suicide bereavement for adults in Australia affiliates Peer support for suicide bereavement for adults in AustraliaIntroduction Peer support services in health services and person-centred recovery has been actively developing and evolving in recent years. Health services have recognized the potential benefits of peer support recovery and improved care for health service users. The traditional models of care focused on care coordination, medication, and symptoms. However, in peer support recovery services, the aim is to increase care and support that focus on the users’ quality of life and goals. Peer support is founded on values such as taking responsibility for your recovery, opportunity to choose a meaningful life, empowerment, and valuing lives of patients with health problems to be equal to those without health problems (Cedereke & Ojehagen, 2007). Peer support is crucial to implement recovery focused services. Even though recovery is an internal process, health services can foster the process in collaboration between peer support specialists and mental health services. Peer support specialists serve as liaison to health professionals, interpreting, and in some cases they act as mediators between staff and service users (Constantino, Sekula & Rubinstein, 2001). They can also challenge unacknowledged discrimination and stigma because they emphasize of full community inclusion in symptom management. For this reason, peer support services have been successful in improving user satisfaction since they enable the development of a collaborative model of treatment. Also, they can access wider support services. Peer support intervention programs provide opportunity to victims who have recovered to participate in helping others to direct their own recoveries by educating them on quality of life. Peer support program has proved to be effective because it reduces isolation and increases emphatic responses. Research indicates that the impacts of the treatment services improve when a former victim serves as a peer specialist in management. Theoretical evidence to support Some studies have ranked the importance of various forms of relationships as support in different ways while other are used as strategies for coping with mental illness and suicidal prevention. Lack of family support is a problem for the onset of an increase in depression and suicidal among adults (Mead, Hilton & Curtis, 2001). Research suggested that parental support at a younger age is vital. The evaluation of self-help groups in suicide prevention has demonstrated positive impacts. Therapy work is necessary for suicide vulnerable individuals and those approaching a different level in the recovery stage. Various studies have shown that peer support has more merits compared with professional case management (Helgenson & Gottlieb, 2000). In addition, social network is also beneficial because it helps people link with a range of support in the community and also exercises citizenship outside health care therapy with peer groups comprising of people with similar problems. The concept of an individual having someone you can confide in is crucial in suicidal prevention. Peer support has become common in many health and mental health programs and was publicized in Australia’s successive suicide prevention strategies. There is enough evidence in sociology and health promotion linking suicide prevention with social connectedness. Lived experience in Peer support services Peer support is based on the expertise of lived experience, which is applied within appropriate boundaries. In the past recovery has been framed in medical terms as the recovery of symptoms or as the empowerment of an individual to have a meaningful life. Australian national policy recognizes the relation between clinical and personal outcomes (Boyce et al., 2003). It recognizes that personal recovery is the ability to create and live meaningful life with or without health problems. In peer support recovery, individuals with lived experiences of addiction, suicide, and mental illnesses, and their carers who have experienced firsthand, in the decision-making processes and part of the health workforce. It is one of the primary roles of recovery-oriented health service to support new programs. It is quite evident that lived experience has a great value and is crucial in a recovery peer support program. Peer support programs are increasingly adopted by Australian health services because they aid recovery outcomes of the users. Various studies have found positive impacts including expansion of social networks, reduced stigma, involved in suicidal management, and improved perception among people with bereaved suicide problems. Peer support as postvention strategy Comprehensive review of mental health services and addiction identified role of community-based as one of the recommendations to people with health problems. Community support will help to strengthen networks in which people depend on and belong Community resources contain significant potentials for innovation and creative commitment that is crucial in maintaining the needed human services. People face problems dealing with mental illnesses because the traditional systems of providing care have various limitations. Research indicates that self-help and mutual support is the fastest growing service for people in recovery (Callahan, 2000). The integration of behavioural health and primary care are essential to a comprehensive approach to health care. Therefore, care must incorporate both mental and physical health to achieve a whole health approach. The information provided by peer specialists is considered to be more credible than that provided by medical professionals. When they are part of hospital-based care, users’ results indicate shortened length of stays, reduction in treatment costs, and reduced frequency of admissions. Literature shows that the use of peer support can reduce the need for mental health service over time. Peer support literature pertaining to suicide prevention Research indicates that adults at risk committing suicide often have suicidal partners or non-supportive partners (Jordan, 2001). A study on a post-hospital program that was aimed at reducing suicidal and psychological distress among adults who had been psychiatrically hospitalized after a suicide attempt in one month prior were allocated to a treatment as usual plus. The support teams included family friends, neighbours, peers and youth-nominated support teams. The results indicated that there was no effect on suicidal attempts, however, women in the intervention performed better with reduced self-reported ideation and decrease in mood-related functional impairments. Impacts of peer support in suicide prevention in adults Numerous studies have recommended the use of peer support as a strategy to fight and prevention of suicide. One of the projects based on suicide postvention suggested that family members also friends should be allowed to discus and talk about their past experiences in relation to suicide attempts with others who have had suicide attempt experiences (Dyregrov, 2002). In South Australian suicide postvention project, it was recommended that part of the support teams should trained volunteers who can give support (Wilson & Clark, 2005). Therefore, development of a postvention initiative that consists of trained suicide survivors. The impacts of peer support service and the probability of occurrence of traumatic responses conveyed very positive and progressive psychological importance due to the bond that is created between the peer supporter and the newly survived victim or survivor. Just like the professionally led and guided programs, the peer support strategy and programs has turned out to be equally effective like and even more effective in terms of cost. Apart from that, it is important to note that the recipients of support have been able to effectively improve the social functioning and at the same time improved the quality of life in general. However, on the other side, the provider has experienced personal growth particularly in reference to an increase in the ability to deal with health related issues and challenges. There is also a significant growth in confidence, self-esteem and generally a sense of empowerment. Study shows that peer support creates an opportunity for a transformation not only within the health system but equally too to the general social set up and system. The general effectiveness as well as cost-effectiveness can be improved with proper maximization of peer support. There are factors that play a vital role in viability of peer programs. These factors include, increased sense of being accepted, more involvement that makes one feel reduction in isolation and also prove of one having experience. The transformation from the state of being a victim to a helper proved to be fundamental as the individuals showed new behaviours which helped them reanalyze their general views. The fact that they now had a meaning attached to their experienced reduced the level of sorrow. Australian peer support study aimed at evaluating the psychological impact on the patient well-being demonstrated positive results particularly among the trained supporters through the peer support program. In a different study that worked on uses and importance of self-help services and also community health providers found that peer support services provided services that were aimed at developing and also improving socialization, autonomy, empowerment, and mutual support. Conclusion The used of per support is a strategy that aims to train survivors who are likely not to attempt suicide. The strategy comes as an intervention to utilize the trained survivors by making them peer supporters and mentors to new victims. This is an important intervention strategy and for a long time much attention has not been given to it. Nonetheless, the strategy continues to play a key role in providing mental and psychological health. This strategy can easily be related to other post-intervention programs only that this is less costly. The lived experiences of the survivors are also crucial in the victims’ recovery process. Literature recommends for increased utilization of peer support in the delivery of mental health services. It is used for suicide survivors and could be strengthened by professional support. This approach has been recommended by various studies indicating it is crucial. Suicide bereavement lays in suicide-specific bereavement intervention programs. Peer support is an alternative that may be incorporated with professional service, has been expressed as a postvention strategy (Cerel et al, 2009). There is enough evidence to support this service in suicide survivors because it involves mutuality and friendship as a treatment service and can be used in treatment engagement and empowering them to manage their problems. It can also add value to treatment service that is available to the victims. References Boyce P, Carter G, Penrose-Wall J, Wilhelm K and Goldney R. (2003) Summary Australian and New Zealand Clinical Practice Guideline for the management of Deliberate Self-Harm 2003. Australasian Psychiatry; June, 2003. Callahan, J. (2000). Predictors and correlates of bereavement in suicide support group participants. Suicide & Life Threatening Behaviour, 30(2), 104-124 Cedereke M and Ojehagen A. (2007) Formal help during the year after a suicide attempt: a one year follow up. International Journal of Social Psychiatry; 53(5): 419-429. Cerel, J., Padgett, J. H., Conwell, Y., and Reed, G. A. (2009) A Call for Research: The Need to Better Understand the Impact of Support Groups for Suicide Survivors Suicide and Life threatening Behaviour, 39(3), 269-281. Constantino, R. E., Sekula, L. K., and Rubinstein, E. N. (2001) Group intervention for widowed survivors of suicide, Suicide & Life Threatening Behaviour, 31(4), 428-441. Dyregrov, K. (2002). Assistance from Local Authorities versus Survivors Need for Support after Suicide Death Studies, 26, 647-668. Helgenson, V. S., & Gottlieb, B. (2000) Support groups In S. Cohen, L. G. Underwood & B. Gorrlieb (Eds.), Social support. Toronto, ON: Oxford University Press. Jordan, J. R. (2001). Is suicide bereavement different? Suicide & Life-Threatening Behaviour, 31(1), 91-102 Mead, S., Hilton, D., and Curtis, L. (2001) Peer support: A theoretical perspective. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, 25(2), 134-141. Wilson, A., and Clark, S. (2005). South Australian Suicide Postvention Project: Report to Mental Health Services (Department of Health). Read More