Peer Support Program Implementation

• A variety of reasons to be a mentor that mentors shared, as well as their approaches can provide valuable insight when creating a mentorship program.
• Support from the organization as well as careful planning will have an effect on the program’s ability to succeed.

Study design: The study used a generic qualitative design.

Objectives: This article set out to garner knowledge of peer mentorship programs delivered by SCI community-based organizations by interviewing people who are directly and in-directly involved with these programs.

Setting: Four provincial community-based SCI organizations across Canada. An integrated knowledge translation approach was applied in which researchers and SCI organization members co-constructed, co-conducted, and co-interpreted the study.

Method: Thirty-six individuals (N = 36, including peer mentees, mentors, family members of mentees, and organizational staff) from four provincial SCI community-based organizations were interviewed. The participants’ perspectives were combined and analyzed using a thematic analysis.

Results: Two overarching themes with respective subthemes were identified. Mentorship Mechanics describes the characteristics of mentors and mentees and components of the mentor-mentee relationship (e.g., establish a common ground). Under the theme Peer Mentorship Program Structures, participants described the organizational considerations for peer mentorship programs (e.g., format), and organizational responsibilities (e.g., funding; creating a peer mentorship team).

Conclusion: This study provides an in-depth look at the characteristics of peer mentorship programs that are delivered by community-based organizations in Canada and highlights the complexity of delivering such programs. Spinal Cord

Project lead and contact information: Shane N. Sweet, 514-398-4184 x09903, shane.sweet [at] mcgill.ca, or www.mcgill.ca/tielab/

Citation: Sweet, S.N., Hennig, L., Pastore, O.L. et al. Understanding peer mentorship programs delivered by Canadian SCI community-based organizations: perspectives on mentors and organizational considerations. Spinal Cord 59, 1285–1293 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41393-021-00721-6

• Reliable measures that capture the intricate and subtle benefits of peer support are needed for community organizations to assess the outcomes of their peer support programs/service. 
• Strong collaboration between community organizations and various types of hospitals (e.g., rehabilitation, general, convalescent) could increase the reach of peer support programs among a wider range of individuals with SCI. 
• Peer support programs across Canada must continue to monitor the physical and mental health of their staff (e.g., peer supporters) to mitigate the negative outcomes associated with providing peer support (i.e. feeling tired and hopeless).

Background: The RE-AIM (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance) framework is a useful tool for evaluating the impact of programs in community settings. RE-AIM has been applied to evaluate individual programs but seldom used to evaluate the collective impact of community-based, public health programming developed and delivered by multiple autonomous organizations. The purposes of this paper were to (a) demonstrate how RE-AIM can be operationalized and applied to evaluate the collective impact of similar autonomous programs that promote health and well-being and (b) provide preliminary data on the collective impact of Canadian spinal cord injury (SCI) peer mentorship programs on the delivery of peer mentorship services.

Method: Criteria from all five RE-AIM dimensions were operationalized to evaluate multiple similar community-based programs. For this study, nine provincial organizations that serve people with SCI were recruited from across Canada. Organizations completed a structured self-report questionnaire and participated in a qualitative telephone interview to examine different elements of their peer mentorship program. Data were analyzed using summary statistics.

Results: Having multiple indicators to assess RE-AIM dimensions provided a broad evaluation of the impact of Canadian SCI peer mentorship programs. Peer mentorship programs reached 1.63% of the estimated Canadian SCI population. The majority (67%) of organizations tracked the effectiveness of peer mentorship through testimonials and reports. Setting-level adoption rates were high with 100% of organizations offering peer mentorship in community and hospital settings. On average, organizations allocated 10.4% of their operating budget and 9.8% of their staff to implement peer mentorship and 89% had maintained their programming for over 10 years. Full interpretation of the collective impact of peer mentorship programs was limited as complete data were only collected for 52% of survey questions.

Conclusion: The lack of available organizational data highlights a significant challenge when using RE-AIM to evaluate the collective impact of multiple programs that promote health and well-being. Although researchers are encouraged to use RE-AIM to evaluate the collective impact of programs delivered by different organizations, documenting limitations and providing recommendations should be done to further the understanding of how best to operationalize RE-AIM in these contexts.

Project lead and contact information: Robert B. Shaw, or rshaw [at] sci-bc.ca

Citation: Shaw, R. B., Sweet, S. N., McBride, C. B., Adair, W. K., & Martin Ginis, K. A. (2019). Operationalizing the reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, maintenance (RE-AIM) framework to evaluate the collective impact of autonomous community programs that promote health and well-being. BMC public health, 19(1), 803. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7131-4

• Peer mentorship is occurring through various interaction modalities and at varying frequencies.
• We still have little knowledge on the mediating or moderating effects of modality and frequency of peer support interactions on the reported outcomes.

Given our understanding of the importance of peer mentorship for people with disabilities, research needs to begin exploring characteristics of the mentor-mentee relationship that could contribute to the observed positive outcomes. To date, no review has examined characteristics of peer mentorship (i.e. interaction modality, interaction frequency) that could impact the quality and effectiveness of this service. The primary purpose was to synthesize the peer-reviewed peer mentorship literature for people with disabilities and report on the interaction modality and frequency employed in each study. A secondary purpose was to document the results of studies that have tested relationships between the outcomes of peer mentorship and interaction modality or frequency. A scoping review was performed that involved a systematic search of MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsychINFO, CINAHL, Web of Science, and SPORTDiscus. Thirteen studies met the inclusion criteria. Articles reported five different interaction modalities; the telephone (n = 12) was the most common. Frequency of interactions was reported in nine studies with mentees reporting between 3 and 77 interactions with their mentor. Only one study attempted to analyze the mediating or moderating effects of modality and frequency on the reported outcomes. In conclusion, peer mentorship is occurring through various interaction modalities and at varying frequencies. Future research should focus on examining the impact that modality and frequency of interaction have on outcomes of peer mentorship.

Project lead and contact information: Robert B. Shaw, or rshaw [at] sci-bc.ca

Citation: Shaw, R. B., Lawrason, S. V. C., Todd, K. R., & Martin Ginis, K. A. (2021). A Scoping Review of Peer Mentorship Studies for People with Disabilities: Exploring Interaction Modality and Frequency of Interaction. Health communication, 36(14), 1841–1851. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2020.1796293