What are some of the major challenges in starting a peer program?

It takes a serious effort to get a program up and running. Obtaining buy-in from the provider community is critical to long-term success and sustainability. Sometimes you have to sell the significance of the peer program and the importance of conducting outreach to get patients who are not in care into care. It is important to identify and articulate the role that peers will play in serving clients and in relation to other staff. The process of convincing professionals that this is a worthwhile effort that is beneficial to clients can take patience and perseverance.

These tools can help to identify and address challenges:

• The Power of Peers to Change Lives contains a digital story which is helpful in demonstrating the benefits of peers to non-peer staff
• Organizational Readiness (PDF), part of the Building Blocks to Peer Program Success toolkit for developing HIV peer programs
• Read More: Orienting Non-Peer Employees on Peer Support, Philosophy and Program Models (PDF), in the Recruiting, Hiring and Orienting Peers section of the Building Blocks to Peer Program Success toolkit for developing HIV peer programs

Another significant ongoing challenge is realizing, accepting and learning to work with the fact that there is a unique supervision and support need in helping peers be successful in the workplace. If you go into a program with a one-size-fits-all attitude, it’s going to be doomed to failure; there are extra support and supervision needs in this case.

More information:

Supervising Peers (PDF), part of the Building Blocks to Peer Program Success toolkit for developing HIV peer programs
• HRSA Webcast: Supervising peers who support clients in HIV care and treatment (Part 1)
• HRSA Webcast: Supervising peers who support clients in HIV care and treatment (Part 2)

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