What is peer support?
Read about why peer support is so powerful, and how we hope WCK’s new program will benefit caregivers navigating childhood cancer and blood disorders.
April 2025
Why is Peer Support a priority at WCK?
WCK completed a mental health literature review in 2022. From this we learned that:
- Families who have a child with cancer or a blood disorder go through periods of crisis mode. Caregivers need mental health support for their child and for themselves, but it can feel impossible to navigate the web of available resources and find what they need.
- Hospitals have few preventative mental health services, because resources have to go towards acute care. The available services can sometimes be difficult for families to access, navigate, and understand.
- The therapy community often lacks specific knowledge about how to best support kids and families who have experienced childhood cancer or blood disorders.
Support for caregivers really matters, because they really matter. Parents have reached out to us in the past wanting to connect with other parents. We learned firsthand that caregivers are hidden patients. We previously offered ad hoc support wherever we could, but we realized the need for a consistent, well-managed program.
We looked at what WCK could realistically provide within our means, which would provide relevant, tangible programming to caregivers that supports their wellbeing and resilience. From this, the Peer Support program came to life.
What is Peer Support?
“Peer support is a system of giving and receiving help founded on key principles of respect, shared responsibility, and mutual agreement of what is helpful” (Mead, Hilton, & Curtis, 2001, p. 135)
At its heart, peer support is about helping another person where they are, without feeling the need to bring them to where you are. You are stepping into their world, trying to fully understand what they’re going through, then supporting them through what healing or progress looks like for them.
The work that you do together can be transformative. The beauty of peer support is there is no power dynamic – each person comes to the table as an equal. The relationship is built on mutual respect, collaboration, and shared experience. Because it takes time to develop this trust, it’s very different from short-term support.
What is its purpose?
It can be hard to find someone who fully understands your experience. You might have many supportive people in your life, but you can feel a disconnect if they haven’t truly been in your shoes. To talk openly with someone who has a similar lived experience to you – and has the skills to see and hear you without judgment – can be a relief. You can feel lighter after sharing with someone who really gets it and fully relates.
How does it support mental health?
In everyday life, we often don’t slow down and process our thoughts. Being part of WCK’s Peer Support program allows caregivers to slow down, make space to recognize what they’re going through, and put a name to their emotions and experiences. This can be an important first step in healing from the traumas that come with their child’s diagnosis.
Having someone to reflect back on what we’re saying does wonders. Often what we really want is for someone to listen and understand us – it feels validating. Once we’ve put our thoughts into words, we feel a little more in control of what’s happening and like we can start to manage it. We then get to decide what we want to do next.
Research even shows that if we speak to someone who listens attentively and non-judgmentally, we are more clear about our own thoughts and able to identify what we want to do next.
Peer Supporters are trained to ask guiding questions about how someone can prioritize the things that matter most to them. Being intentional about the questions helps people to think more deeply about self-care strategies.
Who have we learned from?
We reached out to several incredible organizations who are experienced in running peer support programs. We learned from them about intake processes, determining readiness to be a supporter, important training elements like active listening, and how biases can affect your work. We also learned how important it is to explore what the peer supporter hopes to get out of the program, as much as the caregiver they are matched to.
We’re grateful to these organizations for sharing such valuable knowledge and skills:
What does training involve?
Some things covered in training include:
- Active listening and holding space – sitting with someone and how they’re experiencing something, which might be quite different to how you would experience it.
- Co-creating boundaries – covering things like how often to meet and the limits to support. For example, a Peer Supporter does not provide counselling.
- Code of conduct – setting expectations on both sides, and being clear about what will make the Peer Support relationship successful.
- Privacy and limits of confidentiality – everything shared is confidential unless we are ever concerned about the person’s safety or the safety of those around them.
- Burnout and self-care – recognizing the signs of burnout early on – especially when you can relate so deeply to someone you’re working with – and having ready-to-go self-care strategies.
- Cultural humility and safety – recognizing that we respond to others within the context of our own values, beliefs and needs. Self-awareness is essential in this role so we don’t let it affect the work we’re doing.
- Providing resources – navigating different websites and databases – including WCK’s Resource Guide – and using them to loop caregivers into support.
What's happening now?
We have trained our first intake of volunteers with lived experience, and are now accepting sign ups from caregivers to be matched with them! Parents can sign up here.
What do we hope the program will do?
We hope that caregivers who take part will feel heard and that they have someone to turn to in the hardest moments. For the volunteers, we really hope this program is healing for them. They’re taking a leap of faith to step into this work and open themselves up to another parent going through a journey they can relate so deeply to. We hope it’s empowering to see how far they’ve come and what they can offer others. What they went through is life changing – to take that experience and use it for the good of others is incredible.
We believe that the simple act of “walking alongside” another person is very powerful. It can change families’ entire experiences, knowing that they are not alone and are being equipped to navigate their way forward in the ways that matter most to them.
Hey! I'm Qudrat.
Want to learn more about our caregiver support programs? Reach out to Mental Health Resource Coordinator Qudrat Aujla at familysupport[at]wckfoundation.ca.