Abstract
Peer support is a central tenet of the Disability Rights Movement and is based on
the recognition that experiential knowledge and shared experiences provide opportunities
for informational, emotional, and appraisal support among people with physical disabilities.
“Peer support interventions” is an umbrella term used to describe a range of ancillary
services provided by people with disabilities to people with disabilities, including
peer mentoring, peer health education, and peer health navigation. A growing body
of research documents the development, implementation, and outcomes of peer support
interventions for people with physical disabilities in physical medicine and rehabilitation.
The organization, structure, and objectives of peer support interventions vary tremendously,
making it difficult to synthesize findings across studies and establish best practices
to support their systematic implementation across the continuum of care. This article
is a call to action for greater conceptual clarity in how peer support interventions
are developed, implemented, and evaluated. We propose a 9-part evidence-informed framework
delineating both theory-driven and contextual considerations to help strengthen the
evidence base of peer support interventions for people with disabilities in physical
medicine and rehabilitation.
Keywords
List of abbreviations:
PM&R (physical medicine and rehabilitation), PSI (peer support intervention), PWD (persons with a disability), SCI (spinal cord injury)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 09, 2021
Footnotes
Supported by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research (grant no. 90RT5027).
Disclosures: none.
This paper is part of a supplement from the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine.
Identification
Copyright
© 2021 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine
