Developing and trialling of tools for peer led programs

Our work with Living Positive Victoria and Harm Reduction Victoria has been progressing with a range of tools and approaches being trialled to enhance the evaluation of Engagement, Alignment, Adaptation, and Influence (W3 Framework functions) as well as Peer Skill.

Below are just four examples from across the work we are doing

Our collaboration with Harm Reduction Victoria includes their Peer Networker Program (PnP). The PnP recruits, trains and supports ‘peer networkers’ to distribute needles and syringes to their friends and associates as well as providing education about safer drug use and ‘modelling’ safer injecting practices.

Engagement

• To enhance our understanding of engagement through the PnP, we have been revising the data sheets and analysing the geographic and gender diversity of who the program reaches compared to other needle and syringe programs.

Influence – Policy

• To strengthen the voice of people who use drugs and enhance the advice to the rest of the sector, we have been trialling the collection of current peer insights and feedback from the different networks in the PnP.

 

Our collaboration with Living Positive Victoria includes their Phoenix Workshop for people newly diagnosed with HIV:

Adaptation and Peer Skill

• The Phoenix workshops result in rich peer discussion and problem solving. After the workshop – the peer facilitator’s debrief is a key moment with reflexive discussions– particularly about emerging issues and the quality of the peer experience occurring in the workshop. However, these insights were not being well captured for sharing within or beyond the program. Therefore we have been developing a brief facilitator feedback tool that can tap into and capture the expertise and experience of peer facilitators while minimising number of process feedback questions for participants.

Influence – Community

• To enhance our understanding of the impact of peer led programs for PLHIV, we have collaborated with a range of PLHIV peer organisations (including Living Positive Victoria) and ViiV Healthcare to develop, trial and validate the PozQoL scale. See the separate post on PozQoL or download the summary here

 

We are also working with both organisations to develop clearer overall indicators for the peer led programs drawing on the W3 Framework.

In coming months we will be uploading the developed tools and approaches. For more information in the interim, contact graham.brown@latrobe.edu.au

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