Peer to Peer Mentoring: Facilitating Individuals With Early Inflammatory Arthritis to Manage Their Arthritis - Peer Mentor Training

Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre10 enrolled

Overview

Inflammatory arthritis (IA) is a major cause of long-term disability. Peer support may be a solution to the common problem of delayed treatment. Early peer support may result in improved use of therapy, higher self-efficacy, reduced anxiety, and improved coping in the first two years post-diagnosis. This study involves the development and testing of a peer mentor training initiative as one part of an intervention study for people with early IA (EIA). Peer mentors will be trained and assessed to provide one-on-one support (information, emotional, feedback) to individuals who have recently been diagnosed with IA. This is one part of an intervention study. The other part is called Peer to Peer Mentoring: Facilitating Individuals with Early Inflammatory Arthritis to Manage their Arthritis - Peer Mentoring Program.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Enrollment

Conditions

Early Inflammatory Arthritis Chronic Disease

Interventions

A quasi-experimental, before and after study design is proposed to obtain data for planning and implementing a larger-scale study. A training workshop for individuals with IA to become peer mentors will increase peer mentors' confidence and skills to provide one-on-one support to individuals with EIA. Using a combination of lectures, experiential learning and question/answer sessions, peer mentors will learn and practice informational, emotional, appraisal support techniques and skills (communication skills, problem-solving strategies, use of decision tools). Training will be conducted face-to-face, in small-group format by research team and others (2 sessions approx. 5 hours each), in a private meeting room at SHSC. Peer mentors will then provide support to individuals newly diagnosed with IA for 12 weeks (once per week) by telephone and /or face-to-face. Peer mentors will receive ongoing support from the research team (telephone, meetings).

Eligibility

Sex: ALLHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * To become a peer mentor are: 1. Diagnosis of IA from a physician 2. Disease duration more than 2 years and managing well 3. Currently using medications (DMARDS/biologics) to treat arthritis 4. Have completed an Arthritis Self-Management Program (ASMP) provided by The Arthritis Society and/or similar program and/or have sufficient knowledge and experience with teaching or providing mentoring support to an individual living with a chronic disease 5. Able to participate in two approximately 5-hour training workshops 6. Able to take part in ongoing assessment/evaluation activities (self-report questionnaire, interviews, observation, study activity log) 7. Able to commit to the duration of the research study 8. Willing to provide ongoing one-on-one support to an individual newly diagnosed with IA 9. 18 years of age or older 10. Able to speak, understand, read and write English Exclusion Criteria: * Do not meet inclusion criteria

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

ability to provide informational, appraisal and emotional support

Time frame: 0, 3, 6 months

Secondary Outcomes

confidence to provide informational, appraisal and emotional support