Social Work Essay: Peer Support for Young People - Group Work

This essay delves into the application of peer support as a group work model within the context of social care, specifically focusing on its relevance to young people. It analyzes how peer support can effectively address various issues faced by this demographic, emphasizing the importance of trained support professionals. The essay explores the benefits of group work, highlighting its experiential similarities, empowering aspects, and opportunities for social comparison and learning. It also examines the limitations of group work and provides a detailed overview of planning, development, facilitation, and evaluation of peer support groups. Furthermore, the essay discusses the impact of group processes on shaping group experiences, ultimately concluding with the significance of peer support in community-based practice for the well-being of young individuals.

Running head: PEER SUPPORT
PEER SUPPORT FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1PEER SUPPORT
Contents
Introduction........................................................................................................................2
Understanding Group Work and Peer Support – young people in context.................3
Group work as an effective model for community based practice............................4
Limitations of group work............................................................................................6
Planning, development, facilitation and evaluation of groups..................................7
Group process in shaping group experiences..............................................................9
Conclusion........................................................................................................................10
References.........................................................................................................................11

2PEER SUPPORT
Peer support for younger people – a group work based approach
Introduction.
Understanding group work in the context of social service requires strict adherence to a
particular type of group work model as highlighted in the social service domain. This essay looks
at peer support as the chosen group work model in its application in the context of younger
people, and analyses how certain specific issues among the younger demographic of any selected
location can be appropriately addressed using the particular group work model.
Peer support, as Mead, Hilton and Curtis (2001, p. 134) defines, is the practice of
providing social, emotional or practical support or aid to people in a group by sharing the
knowledge and experience in order to help each other. Although peer support can also be
provided by untrained people in a socially defined group, in the current context of group work in
social service, peer support primarily refers to the provision of support to people by trained
support professionals. A wide number of social groups can be addressed through peer support,
however, this essay specifically deals with younger people as the focus group. Young people are
identified around the world as individuals in the transitional period between childhood and
adulthood. Furlong (2012, pp. 2-3) states that the definition of youth does not encompass a strict
age range and therefore can neither be chronologically explained, nor can be explained on the
basis of specific activities like unpaid jobs or physical relationships. Youth studies is a specific
sub – field of social science that deals with the various context and issues in relation with youth,
including but not restricted to the physical and mental health of the youth, personal, academic,
cognitive and socio – political developments as well (Furlong 2012, p. 4).

3PEER SUPPORT
Youth is the period of maximal development of an individual and entails a wide range of
developmental and progressive features like emotional and cultural competency, development of
advanced literacy and numeracy skills, professional values and ethics and most importantly,
significant physical, physiological and psychological growth. Ergo, the younger people are more
vulnerable to a string of personal issues that they are often unable to find a solution to, all by
themselves. External support therefore becomes a critical requirement for them. This is where
peer support becomes highly relevant. Peer support can provide young people with the
appropriate guidance and support required in order to make their transition out of their areas of
intrapersonal and interpersonal problems and into a steady, stable lifestyle. The current essay
therefore looks at peer support for young people, specifically in the context of peer support as a
group work model / intervention, highlighting certain specific areas of issues in young people
and how peer support, as an intervention model, can be helpful in providing appropriate help to
the youth in need.
Understanding Group Work and Peer Support – young people in context.
Group work can have a wide range of meanings associated with it. Humans are social
animals, meaning that they have an innate proclivity towards forming groups and working as a
collaborative unit. However, as a social work method, group work entails a modified and specific
connotation. Lindsay and Orton (2014, p. 7) define group work as a social method as follows,
“Social group work is a method of social work that aims, in an informed way, through
purposeful group experiences, to help individuals and groups to meet individual and group need,
and to influence and change personal, group, organisational and community problems.” This
definition highlights the key theoretical and functional underpinnings of group work in the

4PEER SUPPORT
present context, as a structured process of intervention and service wherein professional support
is provided to the people in need by a professional social worker.
Group work as an effective model for community based practice.
Group work holds a wide range of key attributes and benefits for the people at the
receiving end of the support. Lindsay and Orton (2014, pp. 8 – 11) highlight certain key points
with respect to how group work can benefit people. Looking at it from the context and
perspective of young people, the first key point that can be highlighted, in adherence with
Lindsay and Orton, is the experiential similarity which provides a strong supportive base for
young people. As highlighted before, young people are particularly prone to a wide range of
physical and psychological experiences, some progressive while others detrimental. Group work
support can be helpful for the young people to deal with the damaging issues in an appropriate
manner, by sharing their experiences and problems with carers who have had similar experiences
and issues. Lindsay and Orton (2014, p. 8) state that through sharing these experiences, the
person and the carer can come to a common understanding that the issues are both common and
normal and therefore can be solved in a collaborative manner.
Lindsay and Orton (2014) also highlight the empowering aspect of group work, stating
that the people responsible for giving the service are in positions of power and agency and
therefore can deal with a large number of service users, while understanding that each people
have differential needs that are not strictly intrapersonal, but are a collective after effect of
interpersonal, environmental as well as socio – political discourses. Opportunities for provision
and reception of help as well as social comparison are two other aspects that become
significantly relevant in the current context. Young people are not only vulnerable to a wide
range of issues, but are also different in terms of personal experiences with the issues. Peer

5PEER SUPPORT
support as a group work intervention brings in a large number of professional supporters into the
play, each of whom have a different life experience from the other. This allows for the service
users, young people to be precise, to understand that the issues they are facing are a version out
of a wide range of issues that a lot of people both within and outside their age group and
demographic face. This further allows for the development of an empathetic understanding
(Segal 2011) both amongst the carers and service users individually as well as the carers and the
service users collectively. This further promotes a more effective provision of social service to
the people who are in need. The objective behind social service through peer support is to
provide as much peer help to the people in need as possible. An empathetic understanding
therefore promotes appropriate understanding and provision of support (Gerdes & Segal 2011)
by both professional and non – professional carers.
Furthermore, group support is also instrumental in providing people with a wide range of
learning opportunities (Lindsay & Orton 2014, p. 10). It allows for vital opportunities to learn
from each other, particularly by exploring how individual nuances in behaviour is experienced
and responded to as well as how alternate behaviours can be tested and implemented. Despite
this aspect connecting to behavioural modification and management, in the context of caring for
young people, it becomes a significant undertaking as most of the issues that young people tend
to face can be identified as an effect for disturbing behavioural aspects (Masi et al. 2013) and
therefore can also be effectively addressed through behavioural modification and management.
Lastly, Lindsay and Orton (2014, p. 11) also highlight that group work can be a source of hope
and optimism for the service users who are suffering from a wide range of issues. Cognitive
maturity of the service users can be a proponent for understanding that the issues that people are
facing are not beyond solution. However the younger people, still being in their formative and

6PEER SUPPORT
developmental stage (Lerner, Boyd & Du 2010), are not always capable of understanding this
notion, and hence are also more vulnerable to fear, stress, anxiety and hopelessness. Peer support
can bring them back to a healthier mental state by making them realise that their problems have
solutions, and if they are not able to solve them by themselves, they can always rely on external
support.
Community based services entail that the service effectively addresses the community as
a singular unit, with the people within the community as the elements that helps keep the unit
functioning as a whole. In fact, Percy – Smith and burns (2013) also claim that the children and
the young people of a society are crucial elements of the society as they can be identified as the
agents of change in sustainable community development. As such, it becomes important to
understand that the individual issues of the people which hamper their personal functioning, also
act as obstacles for the effective functioning of the community.
Limitations of group work
Although the above described impacts of group work, particularly peer support for
younger people, are crucial elements for the effective functioning of the younger people of the
community, there are certain limitations of group work as well that acts against the support.
Lindsay and Orton (2014, p. 13) have also indicated two elements of group work that do not act
in favour of the context. Firstly, group work can become quite strange, in the sense that in its
attempt to be perceived as a common social practice, it instead spreads suspicion regarding itself
amidst its internal and external environments, eventually resulting in increased scepticism
(Lindsay & Orton 2014, p. 13). Secondly, an increased obsession with group work can
effectively alienate the issues and requirements of its members (Lindsay & Orton 2014, p. 13),
resulting in a lack of effective support for both the service provider as well as the user.

7PEER SUPPORT
Planning, development, facilitation and evaluation of groups.
Lindsay and Orton (2014, p. 21) expand certain key elements that become useful in
planning and development of a group. In social service context, the construction of a group is
based upon several elements, like the objective and the purpose as well as the focus service user
base. Given that social service is aimed towards helping people in general, it becomes important
to consider that the service needs to adhere to the requirements of the service users. A peer
support group should therefore not be randomly formed, but should follow the requirements of
the people that they will be providing service to.
Keeping correlation with the planning model as proposed by Lindsay and Orton (2014, p.
21), a peer support group can be planned by the following steps.
Firstly, the problem statement needs to be identified. Considering that the support group
is being created for young people, the problem statement should address several connected issues
that are commonly present in young people as well as specific issues that are prevalent in the
target community. This includes physical and mental health, academic issues, behavioural issues,
legal issues and personal rights, and legal parenting. Once the issues have been identified and
concisely input in the problem statement(s), the next step is to formulate the aim of the support
group that is the primary objective that the peer support group is aiming to achieve through the
community service.
The third step in this regard includes identification of the purpose (young people as the
target service user base), the product (identification and resolution of their issues) and the
tangible outcomes as three clear and distinct phases. This stage is followed by the preparation
phase wherein the focus is on the potential members of the group, a common accessible location
for the service, facilities and logistic requirements as well as a budget.

8PEER SUPPORT
Running the program can be considered a part of the developmental phase where the
program identifies the service user base and reaches out to the people, particularly to the younger
people and their parents / legal guardians. The formation of the support group also needs to be
differentiated on the basis of the types of issues that the young people are facing. Therefore
within the generalised peer support group there will be a focus group dealing with the aspect of
physical health while another group will be handing cases of mental health and behavioural
disorders and likewise. At the same time, the development of the group should also ensure ample
professional support, meaning that the focus groups need to have doctors and practicing
psychiatrists / psychologists as well as professional from the legal domains and educational
sectors as well. Effectively providing the service to the target people will also require effective
collaboration between the service providers and the service users. Follow up checking therefore
also becomes a key considerable aspect that needs to be ensured.
Lindsay and Orton (2014, pp. 44 - 49) also elaborate that facilitating the group should
correlate with effective planning and intervention including several key elements like being
supportive, encouraging and emotionally promoting, in order to facilitate the group functioning
in an appropriate manner.
In terms of evaluation, Lindsay and Orton (2014, p. 23) have also indicated that the
process should involve adherence to the SMART strategy. The SMART strategy is an acronym
that expands to Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timely / Tangible (Haughey
2015). These elements critically identify the validity of the service and helps in evaluating
whether the objectives that had been set primarily are met. Peer support groups need to
specifically set their goals and procedure for working based on the SMART model so that they
can follow a well - designed framework for functioning. Recording and monitoring the work that

9PEER SUPPORT
has been going on gives the stakeholders an understanding of how the work has connected itself
with the aims and outcomes. Recording can be done either through audio-visual methods or
handwritten notes and member records. Evaluation can be done by virtue of how the members of
the peer support group react to the service in terms of changes in attitudes, knowledge and skills,
behaviour as well as the benefits provided to the carers and the service users (Lindsay & Orton
123).
Group process in shaping group experiences.
Lindsay and Orton (2014, p. 72) refer to Love and Will as the proposed model of group
process by Benson, stating that the natural human desire for connection (love) and the urge to
establish a separate social identity (will) are the two competing elements in a group process.
Connecting this aspect with Tuckman’s stages of group development (Tuckman & Jensen 1977)
consisting of five stages namely Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing and Adjourning, it
can be established that Benson’s model of Love and Will promotes the development of each
stage in significant ways. A peer support group focussing on the issues of the youth, need to
consider the elements of love and will in their service while progressing through the stages,
particularly because, as stated before, young people being in their formative stages are extremely
vulnerable to shifting emotions and choices, resulting in a stressful cognitive environment.
Alternately, considering professional development in the context of social service, two other
elements that become important are theories regarding oppression and power (Young 2013),
personal values and ethical considerations. Use of too little power may result in the service
providers to not adhere to certain strict rules of the programme, whereas overuse or misuse of
power may result in both the service providers as well as the users being sceptical about the
social evaluation of the programme. In case of peer support, an equitable base of establishment is

10PEER SUPPORT
required between the carer and the service user and therefore, appropriate use of power provided
to the social service workers is crucial for an effective practice. Similarly, ethical considerations
also need to be given appropriate value when it comes to social service to ensure no ethical lines
are being crossed on either side of the stakeholders. Ethical values include compliance and
correlation with the choices and decisions of the service users, maintenance of user
confidentiality, proper provision of clinical support and non-judgemental attitude (Hugman
2003; Banks 2016).
Conclusion.
Group work as a part of social service is a highly important element that considers how
the shaping and formation of a group with consideration of individual and collective issues and
how they are addressed. This essay has looked into how peer support for younger people as a
process of group work, can be important as well as effective, considering properly identified
stages of planning, facilitation and evaluation are ensured. Thus, it has been found that dealing
with the variety of youth issues can be made possible through peer support as a group work
intervention process. A deeper understanding and more practical exploration can therefore
provide a stronger foundational base for social service in this context.

11PEER SUPPORT
References.
Banks, S., 2016. Everyday ethics in professional life: Social work as ethics work. Ethics and
Social Welfare, 10(1), pp.35-52.
Furlong, A., 2012. Youth studies: An introduction. Routledge.
Gerdes, K.E. and Segal, E., 2011. Importance of empathy for social work practice: Integrating
new science. Social Work, 56(2), pp.141-148.
Haughey, D., 2015. SMART goals. ProjectSmart. co. uk. Np, nd Web, 11.
Hugman, R., 2003. Professional ethics in social work: Living with the legacy. Australian Social
Work, 56(1), pp.5-15.
Lerner, R.M., Boyd, M.J. and Du, D., 2010. Adolescent development. The corsini encyclopedia
of psychology, pp.1-2.
Lindsay, T. and Orton, S., 2014. Groupwork practice in social work. Learning Matters.
Masi, G., Muratori, P., Manfredi, A., Lenzi, F., Polidori, L., Ruglioni, L., Muratori, F. and
Milone, A., 2013. Response to treatments in youth with disruptive behavior
disorders. Comprehensive psychiatry, 54(7), pp.1009-1015.
Mead, S., Hilton, D. and Curtis, L., 2001. Peer support: A theoretical perspective. Psychiatric
rehabilitation journal, 25(2), p.134.
Percy-Smith, B. and Burns, D., 2013. Exploring the role of children and young people as agents
of change in sustainable community development. Local Environment, 18(3), pp.323-339.
Segal, E.A., 2011. Social empathy: A model built on empathy, contextual understanding, and
social responsibility that promotes social justice. Journal of Social Service Research, 37(3),
pp.266-277.