Peer Support Worker Graham Smith, uses his lived experience of mental health to help others

Graham Smith uses his lived experience to help others with mental health difficulties.

Graham was highly commended in the Care and Compassion category at this year’s NELFT Make a Difference Awards for his work as a Peer Support Worker.

Graham’s experience of mental health has helped him to become a Peer Support Worker to help others, he said:

“I believe that the role of a peer support worker is to use our lived experience of mental health issues to support other people who are having issues with their own mental health, to work alongside them in an individually tailored person-centred way and to show them that there is hope when they feel hopeless.

Graham has taken additional steps to be able to become a Peer Support Worker by developing his skillset:

“I completed a level two counselling course, mental health first aid course, and peer leader training during the time of being unwell and I likened it to putting tools into my toolbox to help myself and others when I felt able to do so.

Graham’s dedication to his patients have helped them to achieve lifelong milestones:

“A client’s life was being controlled by his anxiety when I first started to support him, and he was lacking in confidence and self-belief.

He said about the awards:

“This may sound cheesy, but it means the world to me to have been highly commended and it’s something that I am really proud to have achieved and I believe that it is a testament to how far I have come in my mental health journey.

To find out more about Peer Support Workers, visit: Peer Support Workers | NELFT NHS Foundation Trust