Before we can look at natural peer support, it can help to understand what is or can be considered natural support.

What is Natural Support?

Natural support is support that occurs in our lives every day when someone isn’t being paid to spend time with us.

It might look like:

The friend you like to go shopping with

Having dinner with your mom and dad

Going to church on Sunday

Going out to eat with other people from church

Playing cards

Line dancing

Taking something and going to a potluck

Sharing a box of pizza together after a hard day’s work

Helping someone move

Sitting down and sharing a cup of coffee

Natural support is when we spend time with other people. Sometimes natural supports do special things that help us have a better quality of life. Sometimes natural supports are just friends.

Natural support can be crafting together, doing things like…

Scrap-booking

Quilting

Woodworking

Sewing

Leather working

Metallurgy

Making jewelry

Sewing teddy bears

Stitching plastic canvas

…or any other type of craft we might like to do with someone when the other person isn’t getting paid to spend time with us.

Natural support can happen while:

We are riding the bus with a friend

Going to a game with our kids or grandkids

Doing karaoke

Singing a solo

Painting a picture

Going to a party or a museum

Natural support can also be:

Camping together

Riding motorcycles together

Dancing

Bicycle riding

Working out

Snorkeling

Traveling

Whatever it is that you like (or sometimes don’t like to do).

Natural support is about the experience.

Example of Natural and Paid Support

This winter Lucy wants to take a class on making stained glass ornaments. Lucy will have to pull $50 out of her pocket for supplies, and reimburse the teachers. Is that natural support? For Lucy, since she has to pay the class teachers, that part isn’t going to be natural support. However, all the people in the class with Lucy who also had to pay the teacher will be natural supports, as long as the people in the class are supportive. Class teachers are paid supports.

Example of Natural and Paid Support

Tom (someone who happens to have a mental illness) works at a clubhouse. Some of the things Tom likes to do are go fishing, boating and camping. Tom likes to fish, boat and camp so much that he spends most of his time during the day on the water whenever he can. He gets lots of natural support from family and friends.

Because Tom works at a clubhouse, he sometimes gets to take people on Michigan Association of Clubhouses (MAC) camp outs. When Tom takes people on MAC camp outs, he is being paid to be a support. He is support to and for people he takes on the MAC camp outs, but he is not a natural support to them. When he is working, Tom is a paid support. He is paid to support people who attend the clubhouse.

Let’s say clubhouse members Peanut, Mikey, Charlie and Sharon, are going on the camp out with Tom. Peanut, Mikey, Charlie and Sharon are natural support to each other because they aren’t being paid to spend time with each other. Tom, while being a supportive person, isn’t a natural support because he is being paid.

Natural peer support doesn’t just happen for people who have a mental illness. Peer support happens when the same thing is happening to both people, and they are a support to each other. Tom and Lucy are natural peer support for each other. Lucy has a mental illness and Tom has a mental illness. When Lucy and Tom talk, laugh, sing, or sit around a campfire together, they are natural supports to each other. Tom and Lucy don’t get paid to spend time together. They are friends. They are natural peer support for each other.

Natural Peer Support often happens naturally among other people around different illnesses. Veterans often support other veterans; cancer survivors often support other cancer survivors; and there are others.

Natural peer support happens as friendships grow. It can happen in support groups where we share our experiences. It can happen in a drop-in center over a cup of coffee, over a cooking class at the local community college or in a boat learning to fish.

Natural peer support happens when people with like experiences share together.

There are natural support groups for people with cancer, HIV, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and many other types of diseases or illnesses. Recovery International support groups are natural peer support.

Other examples of natural peer support are SCORE, including many veterans’ organizations, quilting and knitting groups, story-telling groups, baseball and basketball leagues, and groups that camp or play cards together.