Scottish Recovery Network

How peer support has a crucial role to play in preventing suicide.

For our Creating Hope Together Conference 2025, we invited organisations to submit a poster for over 300 delegates to view. Each focuses on a project underpinned by the principles of Time Space Compassion. You can find all of the posters here.

Creating Hope with peer support

What we've done and how it embodies Time Space Compassion

The Time Space Compassion approach resonates well with the foundations of peer support. Peer support has four essential components:

Shared lived experience which builds trust and empathy
A mutual relationship of equals where people walk alongside rather than ‘fix’
A supportive relationship based on hope and belief
An intentional space where people explore together and work towards recovery

These essential components aren't possible without peer supporters using a Time Space Compassion approach.

Through peer support, people living with mental health challenges are seen as part of the solution. Walking alongside someone who understands, who ‘gets it’ helps people to feel less alone and offers them the opportunity to explore their feelings and what will help them live the life they choose.

However, misconceptions around peer support can limit investment and collaboration with community peer services that are providing essential support.

We know from our work across the country that peer support can and does act as a suicide prevention measure. Our poster will demonstrate how Time Space Compassion appears within peer support and helps to dispel the misconceptions around its safety, efficacy and suitability for people in serious crisis and distress.

Who we worked with

Community peer groups and services across Scotland who deliver peer support for people affected by suicide.

How people felt

“Peer support can give people hope as we, as peers, are living examples that things can get better and that we are humans just trying our best to get through the complexity of life. The intrinsic understanding of our shared experiences can alleviate feelings of isolation and give voice to the thoughts and feelings we thought were just ours.”

What different it made

"Learning about services. Feeling empowered that the work we do is making such a positive impact."

Many peer supporters and peer groups across Scotland describe peer support as integral to living well and mental health recovery.

They describe how peer support provides opportunities to communicate more openly with people who understand because they have similar lived experiences. This connection leads to finding a way forward even when people are facing particularly dark times and finding life challenging.