Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Jul 27, 2020
Date Accepted: Jan 17, 2021
Older Adult Peer Support Specialists’ Age-Related Contributions to an Integrated Medical and Psychiatric Self-Management Intervention: A Qualitative Study of Text Message Exchanges
ABSTRACT
Background:
Middle-aged and older adults with mental health conditions have a high likelihood of experiencing co-morbid physical health conditions, premature nursing home admissions, and early death compared to the general population of adults aged 50 years and older. An emerging workforce of peer support specialists aged 50+ years or “Older Adult Peer Support Specialists” are increasingly using technology to deliver peer support services to address both the mental health and physical health needs of middle-aged and older adults with a diagnosis of a serious mental illness.
Objective:
This exploratory qualitative study examined older adult peer support specialists’ text message exchanges with middle-aged and older adults with a diagnosis of a serious mental illness and their non-manualized age-related contributions to standardized integrated medical and psychiatric self-management intervention.
Methods:
Older adult peer specialists exchanged text messages with middle-aged and older adults with a diagnosis of a serious mental illness as part of a 12-week standardized integrated medical and psychiatric self-management smartphone intervention.. Text message exchanges between older adult peer support specialists (N=3) and people with serious mental illness were examined (N=8) (mean age of 68.8 years; SD=4.9). A total of 356 text messages were sent between older adult peer support specialists and service users with a diagnosis of a serious mental illness. Older adult peer support specialists sent text messages to older participants' smartphones between the hours of 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays and weekends.
Results:
Five themes emerged from text message exchanges related to older adult peer support specialists age-related contributions of integrate self-management, including (1) using technology to simultaneously manage mental health and physical health issues; (2) realizing new coping skills in late-life; (3) sharing their roles as parents and grandparents; (4) wisdom; and (5) sharing lived experience of difficulties with normal age-related changes (emerging).
Conclusions:
Older adult peer support specialists lived experience of aging successfully with a mental health challenge may have offered an age-related form of peer support that may have implications for promoting successful aging in older adults with SMI.
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