Living Room Cardiff’s peer support is the process of giving and receiving non-professional, non-clinical assistance to achieve long-term recovery from severe alcohol and/or other drug-related problems or harmful behaviours.
This support is provided by people who have similar characteristics (e.g. age, gender, ethnicity, co-occuring disorders) and experiential knowledge (understand recovery as a lived experience), and are able to assist others in initiating recovery, maintaining recovery, and enhancing the quality of personal and family life in long-term recovery. These similarities allow for mutual identification between the recipient and the helper, and give them a sense of confidence and trust. The relationship in peer support is non-professional, which means that it is closer to the reciprocity of friendship, and there is a minimal power differentiation between the helper and recipient. Support provided involves the provision of emotional, psychological, social and informational aid. ¹
¹ White,W. (2009). Peer-based addiction recovery support: history, theory, practice and scientific evaluation. Chicago: Great Lake Addiction Technology Transfer Center.