Informality, advocacy and the sharing of lived experience in peer support work

 The nature and value of the peer support work role in mental health care continues to be subject to debate and empirical enquiry. In these discussions, key concerns include measuring the value and effectiveness of peer support input, mechanisms underpinning beneficial support, and barriers to embedding peer support in mental health services (Vandewalle et al. Reference Vandewalle, Debyser, Beeckman, Vandecasteele, Van Hecke and Verhaeghe2016; Bellamy et al. Reference Bellamy, Schmutte and Davidson2017). [opening paragraph]