Content area
Full text
Abstract
Hamilton and Shery Mead spoke with each other over the course of 2019. They had been united through their connection to intentional peer support (IPS), of which Shery is the founder and Hamilton a practitioner. Narrative therapy and IPS have both proposed meaningful alternatives to clinical ways of work with people. More recently, Hamilton has attempted to use both of these skills together. You can read about this more in the accompanying article, 'Narrative practice and peer support' (Kennedy, 2019).
Key words: IPS, mental health, narrative therapy, intentional peer support, mental illness
Hamilton Kennedy is a mad person who currently works as a consumer academic in the Centre for Psychiatric Nursing at the University of Melbourne. They completed their Master of Narrative Therapy in 2018, during which they worked on exploring notions of failure and the intersections of narrative therapy and intentional peer support. Hamilton can be contacted via email: [email protected]
Shery Mead is the past director of three New Hampshire peer support programs, including the world's first peer-run crisis alternative. She has done extensive speaking and training, nationally and internationally, on the topics of alternative approaches to crisis, trauma-informed peer services, systems change, and the development and implementation of peer operated services. Shery's intentional peer support model has now been adopted by several US states as 'best practice'. This trauma-informed approach sees connections and relationship as the core of healing and growth. Her publications include academic articles and training manuals. Shery's current interests include: developing a theory and practice base for peer operated programs, de-pathologising the effects of trauma and abuse, and finding research and evaluation models that accurately reflect the work of peer programs. Shery can be contacted via email: [email protected]
Hamilton: From the banner on the IPS website and throughout many of your writings, the idea of 'social change' is evident. Could you tell me more about what you wanted with this social change?
Shery: I have always thought that IPS had the ability to change conversations and therefore relational dynamics. When another person changes the way that they know and see, it has an impact on all their other important relationships. I've heard people say, 'I And myself doing IPS with my mother' or my neighbour or my kids....