'You Understand Me': Experiences of Peer Mentors Delivering Support for a Mindfulness Intervention to Family Carers of People With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.
Alex Gordon-Brown, Caitlin A Murray, Nikita K Hayden and 3 others
PMID 40851357WHAT IT FOUND
Peer mentors who were family carers described flexible paid mentoring as meaningful, confidence-building and a route back to work.
Shared caring experience helped them connect with family carers, but manual limits sometimes felt too narrow.
Key findings
01Peer mentors were drawn to the role by a wish to reduce isolation for other carers and by flexible paid work that valued their caregiving experience.
02Mentors said shared caring experience helped family carers open up and allowed them to problem-solve barriers to the mindfulness programme.
03Mentors described increased confidence and a graded return to paid employment, partly because the role was paid and valued their expertise.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
Only peer mentors were interviewed, so the study does not report family carers' experiences or outcomes. The interview sample was small and all invited mentors took part, so it may not capture mentors who disengaged or had negative experiences. Five mentors withdrew early and were not invited to interview, which may bias the sample toward those who continued. No father peer mentors were employed, and only one brother was interviewed, limiting understanding of male carers' experiences. Ethnicity, age and employment status were not collected, so differences related to those factors cannot be considered. The mentoring role was remote and flexible, which some mentors valued but others found isolating or peripheral when they missed group training. The study did not test whether peer mentoring improved family carer engagement, well-being or mindfulness outcomes.
Declared interests
The Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities recruited, trained, supervised, employed and paid the peer mentors; D.M. recruited and employed them through their role.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these findings as evidence that peer mentoring improves family carers' mindfulness engagement or well-being. The study interviewed peer mentors about their own experiences and did not report outcomes for family carers.