Trial reportInternational journal of mental health nursing2018
Liminality in the occupational identity of mental health peer support workers: A qualitative study.
Trial report in International journal of mental health nursing, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Implementation and Outcomes of Peer Support Workers in Services for People With Personality Disorder: A Systematic Review and Narrative Synthesis.Personality and mental health · 2026Pooled it
- A systematic review of the barriers and facilitators to lived experience involvement in mental health services.Frontiers in public health · 2025Pooled it
- Factors influencing the implementation of mental health recovery into services: a systematic mixed studies review.Systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Implementing peer support into practice in mental health services: a qualitative comparative case study.BMC health services research · 2024Trial
- The impact of working as a peer worker in mental health services: a longitudinal mixed methods study.BMC psychiatry · 2022Trial
- 'It was like a little family': A qualitative study of online hearing voices peer support groups in the NHS.Psychology and psychotherapy · 2026Article
- Experiencing and navigating occupational stigma as a peer support worker in mental health services: a qualitative exploration.International journal of mental health systems · 2026Article
- The professionalisation paradox: retaining the health advantages of community-based providers in task shifting and task sharing initiatives.Human resources for health · 2026Article
- Peer Support Workers in Mental Health Care: Plural Positionings Beyond Transformation and Assimilation Dichotomy.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2026Article
- Between Lived Experience and Professionalisation: Can Personal Assistance Redefine Peer Support in Mental Health?Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- The Social Drama of Mental Health Professionals who are also Former Mental Health Service Users.Culture, medicine and psychiatry · 2025Article
- Mapping support systems: a cross-sectional examination of personal support networks, perceived support, mental health outcomes, and help-seeking behaviours among UK undergraduate students.BMC public health · 2025Article
- [Overlooked professionalism-Individual factors for success of peer support workers].Der Nervenarzt · 2025Article
- 'You Understand Me': Experiences of Peer Mentors Delivering Support for a Mindfulness Intervention to Family Carers of People With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.Journal of applied research in intellectual disabilities : JARID · 2025Article
- A Model for Understanding Lived Expertise to Support Effective Recruitment of Peer Roles.Administration and policy in mental health · 2025Article
- Identifying the priorities for supervision by lived experience researchers: a Q sort study.Research involvement and engagement · 2024Article
- The adaptation of a youth mental health intervention to a peer-delivery model utilizing CBPR methods and the ADAPT-ITT framework in Sierra Leone.Transcultural psychiatry · 2024Article
- The Poetry of Recovery in Peer Support Workers with Mental Illness: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Acting as a Mental Health Expert by Experience and Its Impact on Social Identity.Community mental health journal · 2024Article
- Understanding the identity of lived experience researchers and providers: a conceptual framework and systematic narrative review.Research involvement and engagement · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Peer support is increasingly provided as a component of mental health care, where people in recovery from mental health problems use their lived experiences to provide support to those experiencing similar difficulties. In the present study, we explored the evolution of peer support workers' (PSW) occupational identities. A qualitative study was undertaken alongside a pilot randomized, controlled trial of peer support for service users discharged from a mental hospital in London, UK. Two focus groups were conducted with eight PSW. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 13 service users receiving peer support and on two occasions with a peer support coordinator. The data were analysed using theoretical thematic analysis, focussing on occupational identity formation. We discuss how the occupational identity of PSW evolved through the interplay between their lived experience, their training, and their engagement in the practice environment in such a way as to construct a liminal identity, with positive and negative outcomes. While the difficulties associated with the liminality of PSW could be eased through the formalization and professionalization of the PSW role, there are concerns that this could lead to an undermining of the value of PSW in providing a service by peers for peers that is separate from formal mental health care and relationships. Skilled support is essential in helping PSW negotiate the potential stressors and difficulties of a liminal PSW identity.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.