Peer to Peer Crisis Intervention (P2P)
One-Day Course; 7 Contact Hours
Today, many emergency services organizations recognize the value of peer support teams and train from within their organizations to meet the critical event stress that their personnel experience. Peer support teams have almost instant rapport with their colleagues and tend to be trusted and make a positive difference in the recovery process after critical event stress.
Peers have a unique advantage in making good connections with other peers in that they often have shared identity, vocation, experience, and mission. They have a unique understanding of their peers’ frustrations, anger, stressors, concerns, and even reactions. They have a natural rapport that “outsiders” do not have.
Shared identity is inadequate if appropriate training, supervision, and evaluation are omitted. Peers must become proficient in crisis intervention – specifically, being able to provide stress reducing interventions with impacted peers. Most interactions begin with one-on-one conversations between peers. The value of peer support is significant and peer support almost always begins with peer to peer conversations.
What you will learn:
- The nature and results of excessive stress
- Methods of assessment of crisis reactions
- How to build rapport with the impacted peer
- Techniques for active listening
- Techniques for asking questions appropriately
- Principles of confidential communication
- What to say to a person thinking about suicide
- How to support a person experiencing traumatic grief
- Principles of dealing with diversity issues
- What to evaluate
- How to follow-up
- Where to make referrals
- Importance of fitness for peer supporters