Peer Support Program
Please note that peer support groups are currently not meeting in person due to COVID restrictions. Please contact Peer Support at 404-350-7373 or pete.anziano@shepherd.org for further information about virtual support options.
Peer Mentors Make a Real Difference
Research shows patients who receive intensive peer mentorship have:
- Greater participation in peer-led self-care education classes
- More active engagement in rehabilitation
- Greater confidence in their abilities to manage
- Fewer hospital readmissions
Support
Recently injured individuals and their families meet and talk with others with a similar injury, age, and lifestyle who are successfully living with or caring for someone with a spinal cord or brain injury.
Peers
- Role model to encourage greater independence
- Demonstrate functional skills and activities patients think may not be possible and encourage sensible risk-taking
- Share coping skills to effectively deal with problems
- Serve as support so that patients/families feel less alone
How Peer Support Is Done
- Self-care education classes
- One-on-one meetings
- Group meetings
- During therapy sessions
- During community outings
- On the phone and via FaceTime
- Social media
Patients/families decide the method of support based on their needs and preferences.
To talk with a peer mentor is to talk to someone who knows firsthand about living with SCI and brain injury.
Peers Share Insight On
- Activities of daily living
- Self-advocacy and resourcefulness
- Accessibility and mobility barriers
- Education and employment
- Recreation and leisure
- Managing relationships and feelings
- Intimacy and sexuality
- Parenting
- Attendant Care
- Effective use of time and energy
- Coping with self and body image
- Community resources
Download our brochures for spinal cord injury peer support and brain injury family peer support.
For more information contact Pete Anziano at 404-350-7373 or pete.anziano@shepherd.org