Ethics
Peer visitors work, providing support to other persons with amputation, requires judgment related to the other person’s privacy and confidentiality, boundaries, relationships, consent, and competence/expertise. For these reasons, it is essential that peer visitors are aware of the ethical challenges and know how to “navigate” them.
Values are an individual’s accepted standards of right and wrong. Ethics are a set of principles that govern the appropriate conduct of a particular group. Peer support Canada has outlined a series of core values for peer support work. These are important because the work is rooted in a relationship of trust between the person providing peer support and the person receiving it.
Core Values
Click on each of the core values in the following diagram to learn more about each of them.
Principles of practice
Ethical and practice guidance for carrying out peer support are outlined in World Health Organization (WHO) guidance module on peer support. These guidelines were developed based on surveys and focus groups involving 1000 peer supporters and are outlined in the following table. These can also be called peer support principles of practice.
| Peer support is voluntary | Peer visitors do not force or coerce others to participate in peer support services or in any other service |
| Peer supporters are hopeful | Peer visitors supporters tell the stories of their personal recovery in relation to the current struggles of the person they are visiting. They also help others reframe life challenges as opportunities for personal growth. |
| Peer supporters are open-minded and nonjudgmental | Peer visitors value diversity and the differences among people that they support. They also respect individuals’ right to choose their own path to recovery. They accept others as they are and do not judge or assess others |
| Peer supporters are empathetic | Peer visitors practice effective listening skills that are also nonjudgmental. They ask thoughtful questions and listen with sensitivity in order to be able to respond emotionally or spiritually to what the other person is feeling. |
| Peer supporters are respectful | Peer visitors embrace diversity and encourage others to explore how differences can contribute to their lives and the lives of those around them. They practice patience, kindness, warmth, and dignity. They see all people as worthy of basic human rights. |
| Peer supporters facilitate change | Peer visitors help those they support to explore areas in need of change for themselves and for others. They recognize injustices that their peers face and act as advocates and facilitate change where appropriate. They educate others about their rights. |
| Peer supporters are honest and direct | Peer visitors respect privacy and confidentiality and exercise compassion and caring and peer support relationships. They do not make false promises. They strive to build peer relationships based on integrity, openness, respect, and trust. |
| Peer support is mutual and reciprocal | Peer visitors learn from those they support and they facilitate respect. |
| Peer support is equally shared power | Peer visitors use language that reflects a mutual relationship with those they support. They behave in ways that reflect respect and mutuality and do not exercise power over those that they support. They do not diagnose or offer medical services. |
| Peer recovery support is strengths-focused | Peer visitors encourage others to identify their strengths and use them to improve their lives. The focus of this is on the strength of those they support and the use of their own experiences to demonstrate the use of one’s strength and to encourage and inspire those they support. They operate from a strength-based perspective. |
| Peer support is transparent | Peer visitors clearly explain what can or cannot be expected of the peer support relationship and use language that is clear, understandable, value, and judgment-free. They only make promises they believe they can keep. |
| Peer support is personally driven | Peer visitors encourage those they support to make their own decisions and to think through different options. They encourage the people they support to try new things; they also encourage resilience and personal growth in those they support. |
Reflection Exercise
How to complete this activity and save your work: type your reflective response to the question in the box below. When you’re done reflecting on the question, navigate to the export page to download and save your response. If you prefer to work in a Word document offline, you can skip to the export section and download a Word document of the reflection here.
Check your Understanding
This is a self-assessment to check your understanding of the concepts presented in this section. Be sure to click the blue arrow button in the bottom right corner of the activity window below to navigate through all 3 questions. You can attempt the activity multiple times.
