Summary

• The event started by explaining what peer support means: it is about people who have similar lived experiences connecting and sharing with each other.

• Then it discussed the benefits of peer support including emotional support, building confidence, sharing information, and creating a sense of belonging.

• We learned that peer support can be formal (organised groups) or informal (casual meetups).  But we heard that the most effective peer support requires someone in a leadership or facilitator role to keep things organised and to make sure the peer support can keep happening for a long time.

• Availability of groups and funding are major challenges for peer support, especially for groups run by people with disability themselves. 

• One of the major challenges that our speakers talked about was that there is not enough funding for peer support. Another challenge is that there are not enough peer support groups. 

• Rose-Ann and Romeo shared a great conversation about their work with Positive Powerful Parents (PPP). PPP is a self-advocacy group run by, and for, parents with intellectual disability that provides peer support. They also provide  training and resources.

• We heard a presentation from Dr Qian Fang about her work researching people from diverse backgrounds. Dr Qiang Fang also had a conversation with David Yang about his peer support work in the Chinese community. They talked about the language and cultural barriers in accessing support. 

Useful resources

This section has links to some resources that were shared during the event.

Practical Guides

Click here for an easy-read guide about peer support. 

Click here to watch a video by Positive Powerful Parenting about running safe peer support groups.

Peer support places

Click here to find a Self Advocacy Group/Peer Group in your area.

Click here to watch a video by Positive Powerful Parenting about the experiences of some parents with an intellectual disability.

Click here to learn more about Purple Orange, an agency that organises peer support.

Click here to find out more about Get Started which is a peer support organisation which our speaker, Mandy, talked about.

Click here to learn about how an NDIS Local Area Coordinator (LAC) may be able to support you to establish community connections, which may include Peer support.

Click here for information on how to find your LAC.

Click here to find out more about Illuminating Insights, an organisation that one of our audience members shared in the chat.

Auslan & Non-English Language Resources

Click here to find Auslan resources about peer support.  

Click here to find resources in Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Khmer, Vietnamese. 

Academic Material

Click here to view Dr Qian Fang’s PowerPoint slides from her presentation.

Click here to view an Easy Read version of Dr Qian Fang’s PowerPoint slides from her presentation.

Click here to see the research called “Accessing and participating in the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS): Views and experiences of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CaLD) communities – Nov 2018. 

Click here to find out more about the research from UNSW called Peer support practice review.

Click here to find out more about the UNSW Outcome evaluation of icare lifetime care Community Participation Grants

Other shared links

Click here to watch the National Mental Health Consumer & Carer Forum Webinar on Lived Experience Theory of Change.

About our panelistsCath Mahony

Cath is a passionate disability rights advocate and community connector based in Newcastle, NSW. As a skilled presenter, facilitator and trainer, she brings lived experience and storytelling to create meaningful change across face-to-face and online workshops, conferences, and webinars.

Cath believes deeply in the power of sharing stories and supporting others to tell theirs. She regularly contributes to media conversations about disability matters and has been instrumental in establishing Community Disability Alliance Hunter (CDAH), a disabled people’s organisation championing the rights of people with disability to live self-determined lives as active citizens.

Through her work in consultations, focus groups and community partnerships, Cath demonstrates that what we share in common far outweighs our differences. She harnesses the transformative power of peer support and continues to advocate for the human rights of people with disability.

Ayah Wehbe

Ayah Wehbe is a researcher at University of NSW Sydney focusing on disability, with a particular interest in the experiences of Australian Muslim women with hearing loss, which she explores in her PhD and community work. She uses her lived experience and community involvement to make research accessible and bridge gaps between different groups.

Mandy McCracken

After a successful career in publishing and advertising sales Mandy McCracken enjoyed time at home raising her daughters. Since losing her hands and feet to sepsis in 2013, Mandy has worked as a content creator for ABC Radio and online, is a regular face in the Australian media, a storyteller and public speaker.

She is on the Board of Berry Street Yooralla, TOM Melbourne and is the Founder and CEO of Get Started Disability Support Australia, supporting those who are new to disability. She co-founded The Quad Squad, a multiple limb loss support group and regularly volunteers with La Trobe Universities Prosthetic Department, helping to educate the next generation of prosthetists.

Dr Qian Fang

Dr Qian Fang is a lecturer at the UniSA Justice and Society, University of South Australia. Qian’s expertise is in culturally responsive disability policy and practice for people with disability and their families from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds, particularly focusing on peer support networks run by and for people with disability and their families from CALD backgrounds, disability organisations working with CALD communities for culturally responsive practice and comparative research on the international Chinese community.

Romeo

Romeo is a strong self-advocate who has been involved with PPP for over 13 years. He is passionate about parents with disabilities keeping their children or getting their children back into their care.

Rose-Ann

Rose-Ann is a mother of three children who self-advocates for herself, her children, her family, her friends, and parents around the world from diverse backgrounds, including those who are LGBTIQA+, and from any religion, culture, or country.

About Disability DialogueWho We Are

The Disability Dialogue brings people with disability together to talk about issues that matter to us.

Our Values

• We create a safe space for people with disability, their families, friends and supporters
• We believe people with disability are experts in our own lives
• We are led by people with disability

Why This Matters

We want to:

• Generate big ideas
• Find partners to bring good ideas to life
• Improve the systems and services we use

Our Partners

The Disability Dialogue is a joint initiative of:

• DANA
• Inclusion Australia
• Alliance 20
• Melbourne Disability Institute

We are funded through an Information, Linkages and Capacity Building (ILC) grant from the Department of Social Services (DSS) and also acknowledge the support of the Community Broadcasting Foundation.