Why is peer support beneficial? It helps to be able to talk to someone who understands exactly what you are dealing with, what you're struggling with, and what you are going through. They will not judge you because they've been there themselves. We certainly know that seeking treatment sometimes for individuals can be quite a lengthy process before they actually come to understand that they really need to go into treatment in order to get onto the road to recovery. As Major Le Beau has just said, a lot of that revolves around shame and stigma and so on. We also know that the consequences of stigma have major impacts on individuals.
Our program is peer-based; it's a non-clinical approach. We certainly work in collaboration and in teams with health professionals, but we are the non-clinical approach to treatment. All of our staff are all individuals who have an operational stress injury themselves. Those who are working at the field level, who are working with individuals, they themselves have an operational stress injury and have recovered to the point where they can go out and help others. The family members who are working with families know firsthand the impact of living with someone who has an operational stress injury. Everyone in our program who is working in the field has what we call that “lived experience”. They know exactly what someone else is going through.
We also include a volunteer component to our program. Again, the volunteers also have that lived experience.