1. What made you want to work as a peer support worker, considering the amount of stress that is obvious in this job?
One of the conditions of working as a peer support worker in any capacity is to have gone through something similar in one’s life. Since I have suffered from mental illnesses in the past, and I have an inherent will to help people who are at present going through this dilemma, I decided to work as a peer support worker.
2. What do you think the role requires one to do?
Working as a peer support worker is not as simple as it looks. One has to perform many duties such as engaging clients in conversation to determine their mental and emotional health, ensuring that care personnel is provided with stories of one’s struggles so that they can deal with their clients effectively, assisting in the creation, development, and implementation of core support plans to meet the individual needs of all clients, working collaboratively with internal and external departments aiming to provide support to clients, and promoting referral programs and sources.
3. What inherent skills does one require to successfully work as a peer support worker?
The main skill that one requires is the ability to handle emotionally disturbed or limited individuals, with compassion and understanding. In addition to this, one needs to be patient, and analytics, so that it is easier to determine what clients need regarding support and counseling. Moreover, the ability to reach out to people from different backgrounds, and to communicate with them effectively is also important if you want to work as a peer support worker.
4. Do you feel that you were given a fair chance at recovery from your limitations?
To be perfectly honest, no. I was clueless about the fact that there is a system out there that helps people with mental illnesses, which is why I managed through professional one on one counseling sessions, and medicines. This is one of the prime reasons that I want to work as a peer support worker so that I can be a source of information and assistance to people who are now in the situation that I was in all those years ago.
5. Do you get emotionally attached to your clients?
There was a time that I did when I first began working as a peer support worker. I have now trained myself to stay detached.
6. And what is your life goal, where your career is concerned?
I would eventually like to work in a capacity where I can provide insightful assistance to people suffering from mental and emotional trauma. I will soon start training for it.