Peer worker pilot has "profound impact" on people waiting for mental health support
2 July 2025
Waiting to access mental health support can be a difficult time for individuals and their families, particularly when access to the right advice and information can be limited.
In 2023, a team of mental health professionals and third sector colleagues from Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board (CTMUHB) came together to identify what tangible support could be offered to make the waiting period less difficult.
Their application to the Q Exchange* to fund this work was successful and the ‘waiting as well as possible’ project became a reality.
The project, in collaboration with Improvement Cymru (now NHS Wales Performance and Improvement), aimed to learn from people currently waiting for psychological intervention to develop and implement a co-produced test of change that supported a 'waiting as well as possible’ agenda.
Central to the project’s test of change has been the appointment of two new roles to a local team; a peer support worker with lived experience and an assistant psychologist.
The peer support worker’s role is to provide individual support to an agreed number of people on a waiting list for psychological intervention. The introduction of a peer mentor in the local mental health team in CTMUHB has had a resoundingly positive impact, resulting in three additional peer mentor roles being introduced in the wider service.
Christine Jones, Peer Support Worker said: “It has been a beautiful journey and incredible to work with people and walk their path with them through to therapy.
“People who I’ve worked with, they’ve been judged, stigmatised and they’ve not been seen but they’re beautiful people.
“They’ve also made me realise that just because I’ve had mental health challenges doesn’t mean that I’m a nobody and I can help people, we can build a tribe.”
A focus group of service users who had worked with a peer support worker revealed that people felt genuinely listened to, received consistency in their support and that their peer support workers could empathise with them having gone through similar experiences themselves.
Speaking last year, one service user commented:
“I first met my peer support worker in April 2024 and the impact of our first meeting had such a profound impact upon me that it immediately changed my life for the better.
“She has been the bedrock of support for me ever since, never wavering in her support and kindness, she has given me back faith in myself.
“Due to her kind intervention, I completed my first Peer Mentor course and I am now a qualified peer mentor within youth support.”
Andrew Munkley, Lead Therapist for the project said: “It has been amazing opportunity to be a part of the Q Exchange project working in collaboration with individuals with lived experience, and colleagues in NHS Wales Performance and Improvement.
"Peer Support Workers offer a unique alternative to clinical roles. Those who engaged reported feeling less isolated and more hopeful through shared understanding with someone who had similar experiences.
“The value of the role is embedded in transformative mutual relationships and the emergence of a workforce with lived experience and its potential to positively impact on the lives of those accessing our services is very exciting!”
Dominique Bird, Acting National Director for Quality Safety and Improvement, NHS Wales Performance and Improvement, added: "This project has shown us the profound difference that incorporating lived experience can make within mental health support.
“I’m incredibly proud of what this collaboration has achieved and look forward to seeing how this develops."
*The Q Exchange community is a great place to partner with health professionals across the UK facing similar challenges to improve the delivery of health services. More information can be found here: https://q.health.org.uk