Table 3.

Summary of findings of Qualitative Studies that Investigated Experiences of Working as a Peer-Support Provider

Study	Focused Theme	Informant	Method	Conclusion
Armstrong et al. 1995 [46]	Satisfaction, QOL and personal development benefits regarding the consumer volunteer program.	Consumer volunteers (n=23).	Semi-structured individual interviews.	Participants emphasized their relationship as empathetic human beings and reciprocal relationships. Through their changed sense of identity, they experienced positive changes in QOL.
Mowbray et al. 1996 [40]	Roles, benefits, challenges, structure and personal issues of peer specialists.	Peer support specialists who completed the training (n=11).	Focus group interviews.	Consumers as community support workers can make distinctive contributions to the support of their peers within the community and on the jobsite.
Mowbray et al. 1998 [42]	Benefits and problems of consumers as peer support specialists.	Former peer support specialists (n=11).	Semi-structured individual interviews.	Many benefits accrue to the peer-support specialists, but benefits identified for the mental health system appeared to be more limited, at least according to the PSS perspective.
Yuen & Fossey 2003 [45]	Rewards and challenges of working in recreation program.	Consumer-staff employed (n=3).	Semi-structured individual interviews.	Rewards were purposeful activity, wages, social networks, helping others, sense of ‘teamness’ and maintaining well-being. Challenges were negative feelings about the team process.
Doherty et al. 2004 [39]	Benefits and problems of having a consumer-employee within an assertive outreach team.	Consumer employees (n=2) and other team members (n=10).	Semi-structured interviews.	Benefits were increased self-esteem, hope, a positive role model and changes in staff’s attitudes towards the clients. The drawback was the high incidence of sick leave.
Gates & Akabas 2007 [50]	Policies, procedures and structures that support the contribution of peers.	Mental health agency staff (n=93) and peer providers (n=15).	Semi-structured telephone interviews and focus groups.	Respondents identified attitudes toward recovery, role conflict, lack of policies and practices around confidentiality, poorly defined job structure and lack of support for peer providers.
Chinman et al. 2008 [41]	Experiences in joining a team and the duties, roles and barriers of consumer-providers.	Consumer-providers (n=59) and supervisors (n=34).	Focus group interviews.	Consumer-providers provide a wide range of recovery-oriented services and are valued by staff and consumers.
Moll et al. 2009 [51]	Issues and challenges associated with integrating peer-support services into “traditional” mental health services.	Peer support workers (n=6) and managers (n=6).	An in-depth, semi-structured interview.	Central challenges included defining and establishing roles, balancing tensions between the peer and staff roles, negotiating the challenges of being a role model, transitioning identity from consumer to provider and fitting in or being accepted in the workplace.