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The REACHOUT Mental Health Support App for Type 1 Diabetes: Exploring user experience from the perspective of participants and peer supporters.
ABSTRACT
Background:
Existing qualitative research in peer support interventions have largely focused on the recipients of support, rather than those delivering support. Exploring the perspectives of both roles may provide a holistic understanding of the peer support experience.
Objective:
This study elicits the experience of participants and peer supporters in a peer-led mental health support intervention delivered via mobile app for adults with type 1 diabetes (T1D) living in rural and remote regions of British Columbia.
Methods:
32 study participants (participants and peer supporters) were interviewed in focus groups following participation in the pilot trial REACHOUT. Thematic analysis was performed in an inductive approach.
Results:
Four major themes were identified by thematic analysis: (1) need for a sense of community and belonging, (2) factors to enhance the peer supporter-participant experience, (3) key aspects of the peer supporter experience, and (4) importance of personalizing the user experience while using the REACHOUT mobile app. The peer support program successfully fostered a sense of community, connecting adults with T1D who previously felt isolated. Participants felt empowered given the opportunity to choose a peer supporter and shared the main factors they considered when matching including diabetes management systems, duration of diabetes, shared activities, life stage, and age. Peer supporters share the benefits and challenges of their role. They were surprised by the mutually beneficial relationship and suggested more guidance on how to navigate boundaries and additional support for emotionally charged conversations. Lastly, the REACHOUT app satisfied heterogeneity in support needs by offering one-on-one and group support and in different modalities, text and video.
Conclusions:
The dynamic between participants and peer supporters likely drives the success of peer support programs. Understanding both perspectives is essential to refining interventions and optimizing mental health support models.
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.