Introduction

The Peer Visitor ® Program is designed to assist persons facing amputation or with limb loss help in their quest to resume productive and healthy lives.

One of the main pillars of the Amputee Coalition of Canada (ACC) is its peer visitor program and this is one of the ways the ACC fulfills its Mission “To empower our Canadian limb loss community through connection, resources, education, and peer support”. Social support, through peer visitor programs, provides individuals with limb loss with practical, social, and emotional resources that facilitate their adaptation to and ability to cope with limb loss (Validazeh et al, 2014). It also benefits both the person being visited and the peer visitor; peer visitors experience increased resilience and a sense of belonging (Richardson et. Al., 2018).

The ACC peer visitor program is long-standing and has been based on an adaptation of the American coalition’s manuals. In 2021 we began work on developing fully Canadian peer visitor materials which include:

• Peer Visitor Guide
• Peer Visitor Training Manuals (in-person and remote) and
• Training Peer Visitor Trainers Training Manual (see figure below).

Train the Trainer programs teach participants everything they need to become trainers, in this case, peer visitor trainers.  Trainers will be persons with amputation who have been previously certified as amputee peer visitors.

The purpose of this manual is to provide the information needed by persons who are training persons to train peer visitors. As you follow this manual, you will also need to be familiar with the ACC Peer Visitor Guide and especially the Peer Visitor Training Manuals (In Person and Remote).