Peerstøtte i en recoveryorienteret praksis

Om paradoksale handlerum og formålsuklarheder i et felt i udvikling

Abstract

Recovery is an increasingly prioritized political agenda in the Danish psychiatric system. A main initiative concerns the implementation of peer support, which offers a unique supplement to the efforts of (other) professionals through the sharing of experiences from people with user background. Despite a strong and positive overall narrative regarding recovery, providing peer support in practice may, however, be experienced as challenging for the peer workers.
In this article, we want to explore how the political objective of recovery-supporting initiatives (here peer support, specifically) plays out in practice, and how concrete everyday life conditions frame the spaces of opportunity that such efforts are realized in. To do so, the article is anchored in a critical psychological research tradition and draws on participant observations and interviews with peer workers to bring forward their perspectives.
The article points out – and seeks to nuance – how political intentions bear the risk of instating paradoxical demands on peer workers, leaving the individual peer worker with the task and responsibility of navigating often complex action spaces, in an attempt to carry out an unclear assignment.

Keywords:
Peer support, recovery, politics of everyday life, psychiatry, practice paradoxes