A community of practice for peer mental workers: Lessons learned

ABSTRACT

This article reports findings from a study that assessed the usability of a web-based community of practice for peers located in programs that had few opportunities to interact face-to-face with other peers. Peers are individuals with lived experience in mental health recovery who are employed by mental health agencies to work in various capacities because of their experiences. The website was designed to allow participants to exchange information and experiences through blogs and message boards, to access information helpful to their jobs, and to provide mutual support. The article makes a contribution to the literature on severe mental illness in reporting website use issues for people in recovery who are employed rather than people in treatment, and in website interaction rather than information retrieval.

KEYWORDS:

• community of practice
• e-community organizing
• employment
• mutual support
• peer
• recovery
• severe mental illness
• website

Acknowledgments

The authors with to thank the organizational and individual participants.