Youth Peer Support Program

Alfred Health’s Youth Peer Support program provides an opportunity for young people to connect with other young people who have experienced mental health challenges or struggles in their daily lives. Peer support relationships can instil hope and model strength and resilience, through the sharing and mutual learning from each other’s experiences. 

What we do

Youth peer support workers can provide support by:

• Listening to, talking about and validating a young person’s experiences in a non-judgmental way
• Empowering young people to explore their identity and make sense of their own experiences
• Potentially sharing their personal mental health journey in a purposeful and meaningful way
• Exploring different perspectives around mental health and the challenges young people may face throughout their recovery journey
• Helping to answer questions that young people may have about our services; and
• Support the voice of the young person in decision-making about their care and recovery journey

Youth Peer Support Workers are people who have experienced mental health challenges and have accessed services as young people themselves. They are not clinicians. They also are not ‘friends’ with young people. They receive peer support training that enables them to work purposefully, meaningfully and safely to share, where appropriate, parts of their own recovery journey to instil strength and hope. They model healthy boundaries, are trained to be able to listen and offer support without judgment, as well as provide genuine empathy, connection and understanding from the perspective of someone who has ‘been there’.

Who we care for

We provide support to young people from birth to 25 years who are accessing the services at Alfred Health’s Infant, Child and Youth Area Mental Health and Wellbeing Service (ICYAMHWS).

A key part of a Youth Peer Support Worker’s role is to be present with a young person, meet them where they are at and support them in their own recovery journey. They may provide one-on-one support or facilitate peer support groups.

Most young people like to connect with them outside of the clinic environment. Flexibility to work in an outreach capacity is an essential element of peer support work to enable meaningful connections to be established and informed by where the young person is at in their recovery journey.