Open Mental Health is a partnership where the NHS, the local council, and community organisations work as one team. Our goal is simple: to make sure that any of your patients who are finding things difficult can get the right support at the right time.
In general practice, you often see people when they are at their most vulnerable. We know that clinical care is essential, but sometimes people need a different kind of connection to truly move forward with their recovery. This is where peer support comes in.
Max is a volunteer Peer Mentor with Peer Connections, a Rethink Mental Illness service that is part of the Open Mental Health alliance. His story shows exactly why this non-clinical approach is so effective for the people you support in your surgeries every day.
A New Direction
Max’s journey into peer support began after his second hospitalisation. It was on the ward that he met peer workers for the first time. “They were really good,” Max recalls, “amazing and really helpful.”
That positive experience planted a seed. “It just sort of made me think, ‘Oh, I wonder if I could do this?’” Encouraged by others who thought he would be well-suited to the role, Max decided to explore a new path focused on peer work.
Learning the Ropes with the WATCH Community Interest Company
The first step was finding the right training. Max’s mum saw information about the WATCH Community Interest Company’s Peer Foundation Course, and he signed up. He found the course to be the perfect entry point.
“It was good because it was run by people who had had experience of mental health issues,” Max says, which made it “relatable from the beginning.” He found the pace was good, nothing felt rushed, and it gave him a “much more solid understanding” of the peer worker role. Importantly, it also helped to build his confidence.
It was during this course that a link was shared for a voluntary position with the Peer Connections service, and Max successfully applied.
Walking a Shared Path
Alex Nelson, the Senior Project Officer with the Peer Connections service, remembers his first chat with Max. “When we first spoke, I was struck by how openly he was able to talk about quite challenging lived experience at his age,” Alex says. “There aren’t many males in his age group who can talk about what’s happened to them so openly, so honestly, and so powerfully without consequence. That by itself was what made me think he’s got talent to support people.”
When the time came to meet his first mentee, Max says he was “quite nervous, but kind of cautiously optimistic at the same time.” The connection wasn’t instant. “At first we had quite a lot of longish silences,” he recalls.
But as they talked, a powerful connection formed around their shared experiences. Both Max and his mentee shared similar diagnoses and were even on the same medication. For someone who might feel overwhelmed in a clinical setting, this shared reality is deeply comforting. His mentee was able to “relax properly” because Max had direct, personal experience of what his mentee was going through.
Alex notes that those initial silences can actually be a gift, “Isn’t there merit in a beautiful silence where no one feels the need to speak?” Alex asks. “Where you let people take the time to think what they want to say next.”
Max agrees. “He’d often come out with something unexpected. So I think that was often quite useful, actually. Maybe other people just hadn’t given him the opportunity to process what he wanted to talk about next.”
This approach made a real difference. The mentee, who had previously engaged with multiple clinicians and services without finding the right fit, said: “This is the best support I’ve had.”
A Bigger and Better World
Peer support does not replace clinical care; it works beautifully alongside it. For Max, the rewards of volunteering are mutual.
“I can speak to a mentee and help them understand that they’re not the only one going through what they’ve gone through. But it also helps make me realise that I’m not alone either,” he explains.
Alex sees this connection as the very essence of what peer support can do. “You walk away having connected with someone, and the fact that you can connect with one person means there are more people out there you will be able to connect with. To me, it’s counter-isolationism, it’s counter-loneliness, and it’s more community. Your world is bigger.”
For general practitioners and healthcare teams, referring patients to peer mentors like Max can offer a breakthrough. “Seeing people like Max come through the system, come from the inpatient ward, come to the point where they’re helping others and giving back, to me that reinforces that what we’re doing here actually works,” Alex notes.
Want to Know More About Peer Connections?
If you would like more information on how the Peer Connections team can help the people in your care, please get in touch with Sue, Alex and the team at peerconnections@rethink.org