This webinar is online on Zoom
Book your place
To book a place please email events@imroc.org with “Does Peer Support Work?” in the subject line.
Ever found yourself reading a piece of research and wondering ‘what the heck does that mean?!’
Ever felt like you needed to be armed with research evidence to make your point but didn’t know where to start?
Ever wondered what ‘the experts’ tell us about peer support?
This webinar is for you! As part of our demystifying research series, we’ve been digging into the question ‘does peer support work?’ A deceptively simple question with a less than simple answer. In unpicking this question, we’ll explore how exactly peer support is being measured and what methods are more highly prized. We’ll introduce and explain various research terms in a way which is understandable and accessible. We will also make time for discussion and debate about research into peer support. The webinar will be based on this paper, written by Simon Bradstreet, our webinar host, who will be in conversation with Emma Watson.
Date and Time
Wednesday 18th February at 12- 1pm
What to Expect:
We’ll cover:
How impact is usually measured, and which methods are most highly prized
What does ‘work’ even mean in the context of peer support?
What the research tells us about the impact that formalised peer support has on those receiving it
Why some methods work better for understanding peer support than others
What we miss if we only look at research to understand peer support
Key takeaways and benefits of attending:
Get your head around how ‘interventions’ are measured by researchers and how ‘impact’ is understood
Get to grips with the available research evidence for peer support
Take a critical eye to the research to understand what’s missing, and why certain methods are used more
Explore research gaps, and share your views on research in peer support with a friendly crowd.
Speakers
Simon Bradstreet
Simon Bradstreet works as a consultant with Imroc and brings over 20 years of experience mental health research, policy and improvement. His background includes roles in evaluation consultancy, academic research and teaching. As founding Director of the Scottish Recovery Network he helped introduce formalised peer working in the UK and developed a number of innovative programmes founded on valuing and building from lived experiences of recovery. Simon’s PhD focused on how stigma becomes internalised and has contributed to over 30 peer reviewed publications. Through Simon Bradstreet Consulting, he currently provides research and consultancy services to a number of clients, including the Mental Elf, Matter of Focus and Habitus Collective UK, and is a qualified Gestalt Coach, supporting peer leaders and others in helping roles.
Simon has a passion for communicating and demystifying research. His mission is to enable positive change and improvement in all aspects of health and social care through evidence-based and participatory methods.
Emma Watson
Emma Watson is the programme lead at Imroc for Research, Evaluation, Publications and Development, and, until recently, was the Peer Support Lead at Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. As Peer Support Lead, she has led the strategic introduction of peer support workers into a range of clinical services, establishing training and supervision processes to support this development. Prior to this, Emma worked in a number of peer roles, including peer support worker, peer supervisor, peer trainer and peer researcher. Emma was among the first peer workers to be employed in Nottingham NHS Trust in 2010; an experience which transformed her own recovery, as well as her understanding of the power of lived experience.
As a programme lead at Imroc, Emma aspires to centre lived experience perspectives in research and publications, and offer accessible, creative ways for knowledge to be developed and shared. She is leading on the development of an MSc in Lived Experience Leadership as well as overseeing Imroc’s research and evaluation projects. Emma's commitment to advancing peer support is further demonstrated through her extensive research publications. She has authored numerous articles, as well as co-authoring the book "Peer Support in Mental Health," which provides an in-depth exploration of peer support concepts and practices. Her PhD explored peer support in the context of an NHS service, especially how this context changes or constrains peer support, and how individual peer workers resist this process.
Ashleigh Charles
Dr Ashleigh Charles is a consultant with Imroc and a researcher within the Recovery into Research Team (RRT), with extensive experience in mental health research, evaluation, and workforce policy. Her professional background spans roles as a peer support worker, support worker, registered mental health nurse, policy associate, and academic researcher, offering a distinctive blend of lived experience, clinical practice, and research expertise.
Ashleigh’s PhD explored the implementation of peer support roles within NHS services, with a focus on organisational culture. She has worked on both National Institute of Health and Social Care Research (NIHR), including Narrative Experience Online (NEON), and European-funded research projects, such as the multinational UPSIDES study (Using Peer Support in Developing Empowering Mental Health Services), contributing to research on peer support across diverse global contexts.
She has authored numerous publications on workforce development, peer support, organisational culture, and the transformation of mental health systems. Ashleigh continues to support national strategy and workforce policy, championing recovery-oriented, co-produced, and inclusive approaches to mental health care. She is committed to ensuring health and social care research is accessible, participatory, and drives real impact.