Golden Key’s peer mentors

The Golden Key Peer Mentor Team is a network of people with lived experience who support Golden Key clients. The team started work last September, and now consists of a mix of workers from different agencies including Bristol charity Developing Health and Independence (DHI), Bristol Drugs Project (BDP), Second Step and ARA.

The first peer mentor induction courses ran in November 2015, and there are still peers from that original cohort working on the project. Golden Key currently has 19 peer mentors matched with clients.

The team holds monthly meetings where peers share information, practical issues and experiences. Feedback from peers includes: “For once in my life I feel wanted!, Golden Key helped my real self; discovering what I’m happy doing and what I dont like”.

Project lead Alv Hirst said: “Over our first year of working, the theme of co-production has strongly emerged. The team is committed to developing authentic partnerships with our peers to ensure that lived experience informs the progress of the service”.