Peer Support and Peer Mentor

Peer Support Program

 Peer Support now has its own group on Facebook that you can join!

Meet the Peer Support team: Peter Harre, Col Mackereth & Katie Franz

When your life completely changes owing to something as traumatic as a spinal cord injury, it helps to have someone there who has been through the same thing – someone who can say “I know how you feel” and it’s the truth.    

The Peer Support Program is designed to support individuals, and their families, following a spinal cord injury. Members of the program are there for people right from the start – during the early days in hospital and through the rehabilitation period. They are also there to help through the challenges of major life changes following discharge from hospital.    

Our Peer Support team all have a spinal cord injury and are living fulfilling lives within the community. It’s their job to assure our members and clients that there is life after a spinal cord injury. While it can sometimes be a challenging job, it’s a very rewarding one.    

They have experienced everything a newly-injured patient is about to face – the change in personal and family relationships, adjusting physically and emotionally to the changes to their body, modifying their home and social barriers.     

Josh Lowe and Peter Harre at the Spinal Unit

Josh Lowe (left) with Peer Support Coordinator Peter Harre at the Spinal Injuries Unit.

They are there to provide:    

  • information
  • reassurance
  • shared experiences and challenges
  • guidance on issues that arise when returning to the community, and
  • direction to supportive links and networks in local communities.

Peer Mentor Program

The Peer Mentor Program follows on from the success of the Peer Support Program and is designed to support individuals and their families, following a spinal cord injury, and upon return to their local community. Currently, the Association has Peer Mentors in Redcliffe (David Criss), Ayr (Scott Stidston), Townsville (Maria Hutton), Cairns (Ian Chill), Mackay (Luke Simmons) and Bundaberg (Peter McClintock).   

Peer Mentors can offer firsthand knowledge about spinal cord injuries and the impact that it has on health. Based on their personal experience, Peer Mentors can provide information that is not readily found in the materials available from the hospital. For instance, they can explain how the spinal cord injury affected them when they first went home from the hospital. They can explain how they felt, what they thought was particularly difficult and what they did to overcome these difficulties.   

They can also talk about other aspects of living with a spinal cord injury such as best practice for medical problems and therapies; healthy living; community access; emotional support, and relationships and sexuality.   

For more information, please contact the Association.