Well-Space: Peer Specialist Fidelity Criteria and Practice in First-Episode Psychosis

Stephen J. Fedele (1), Lisa Charland (1), Allison Nelson-Eliot (1), and Michael Murphy (1,2)

1. McLean Hospital,
2. Harvard Medical School

Abstract

McLean Hospital’s Well-Space Program, a peer-led initiative that works in conjunction with McLean OnTrack, a first episode program (FEP), hosts in-person and virtual groups along with providing vocational support for young adults ages 18-30 who have experienced psychosis. Within the literature on peer work, there is limited consensus on standardized practices and measures for assessing fidelity criteria. This also varies from state to state. Maintaining effectiveness and adherence to peer principles while also having a clear sense of best practices can become more difficult when fidelity measures are not established. However, there is a contingent of peer providers who assess that too narrowly defining the role can also be overly constraining to the work and detract from some of the capabilities of peers. Our aim is to research current fidelity criteria and compose some pillars, report on Well-Space’s adherence to fidelity criteria, indicate how and why we deviate from it as peer providers, and explore how this can improve the quality of care we are providing as peer specialists.