INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST NATIONS PEER SUPPORT PROGRAM

"Friendship lives in every heart."  Chief Dan George

1.2 To have an overview of the training model;

1.3 To review each of the training modules.

1.4 To answer any questions that the participants may have about the training.

COMMENT: The introductory module provides an opportunity to reach as many potential participants as possible; therefore, it is wise to remember the old saying that first impressions are often lasting impressions. Be sure to present the following lecture in as clear and natural a manner as possible. It is also important to emphasize before you start that you will welcome questions either during the presentation or immediately following it.

First Nations people are a diverse and unique group of people with differing traditions and practices. We have the Coast Salish, Nootka, Tsimshan, Kootenay, Tahltan, Carrier, Sekani, Chilcotin and Haida, just to name a few. But as First Nations people move around the country, we are seeing people from many more different groups. So while we speak of differences, we should remember that there are many more similarities than differences. In fact, these similarities are much more stronger than the many differences. If you had to put the idea of similarities in a few words, you might say that what unites First Nations people is the desire to "give voice to our ancestors." What this means is that we have a way of looking at the world in a holistic way. Nature is a common theme in our traditional life because we have treated Nature, not as a "thing" to be exploited, but as a brother and a sister. We are oriented towards integrating all aspects of humanness (e.g. mind, body, feelings and spirit). We do not value one part of ourselves over another part. All parts of ourselves are equally valuable and important to make us who we are. In part, you might say that the helping process is to heal these different parts of ourselves. In short, empowering our ourselves, by strengthening our identity. People with a strong sense of identity feel good about themselves and honours the greatness of their ancestors, their past, their present and their future.

The aim of the First Nations Peer Support Network is to provide an informal helping and support service using volunteers from the First Nations community to work with other First Nations people. What we hope will make the support network effective, is to combine both established helping practices with the traditional "spirit" that makes First Nations people unique. With increased urbanization and dispersal of First Nations people, the challenge for us is to utilize the human resources within our community. Rather than looking at the larger non-native community for help and direction, we need to look at each other as valuable ass This means that attitudes that we cannot help ourselves need to be changed, so that when one of us is "hurting," we all hurt. In fact, everyone, no matter who they are, will hurt at one point in their lives. A responsible person knows this and seeks help when necessary. To ask for support is a natural and positive practice.

Traditionally, First Nations people have practiced informal helping in their community, by reaching out to their families, friends and neighbors in time of stress. There is even a name for it: "network therapy." This type of therapeutic approach stresses that all of the social forces that effect someone are related to each other. Thus, the family, relative, and friends are used when someone is experiencing emotional distress. Red Horse (l982), a Sioux, develop a "network therapy" program called Wido-Ako-Date-Win, which brought everyone who wanted to be supportive into the helping process. Red Horse stressed that you could not help someone without including those important people in his or her social network. Helping is usually not one-on-one, but the person being helped with a significant other available. This idea reflected the notion that the best way to help was to regard everyone in the First Nations' community, as a family. In fact, many traditional First Nations people, stress that mental well-being cannot be separated from the context of the community. In other words, in order to help heal someone's emotional problem, the community has to be involved in the process. To emphasize this further, consider that in studies involving help seeking attitudes of First Nations university students, indicated they "would typically seek help from family members before seeking psychological services" (LaFromboise, Trimble, & Mohatt, l993, p. 152).

The peer support concept is a variation of Red Horse's idea that has been utilized in a variety of situations and with a variety of groups, from elementary school students to senior citizens, with a high degree of success. Helping is based on the notion that the best way to help yourself is to help others. Indeed, we are all each other's brother and sister, thus we owe it to our peers to help and support them. The rationale of the peer support concept for First Nations people is that there is a:

l. need to help and support those in the community who want help, but do not feel comfortable with professional agencies;

2. need to develop more traditional approaches to counter the depersonalizing atmosphere of life away the usual forms of support;

3. need to promote the notion of self-help and independence;

4. pool of talented Nations people who want to be helpful to their peers.

Peer support is based on the premise that, when people have a problem or concern, they will seek out their peers, people like themselves, for help or advice. Peer helpers are people trained in helping skills who are willing to listen and talk to others about their thoughts and feelings and who genuinely care about others. In addition, they are people who know how to access community resources, act as advocates, and be available to offer support to those in need.

Effective peer support givers use communication skills to help other Nations people use their strengths to solve problems. The idea is to empower each other by being mutually supportive. Thus, the peer support giver builds on the skills and modes of expression that are a part of being aboriginal, peer helping emphasizes the skills of active listening, reflection of meaning, and self-disclosure.

As trained volunteers, peer support givers can work in an informal and/or a formal way. Informally, peer support givers work within their own social network with those who are experiencing some difficulty or problem. For example, if they see someone who is sad because of the difficulty in adjusting to the depersonalized atmosphere away from home, they could go and visit that person and offer their support. Once they have built a relationship, they then would work at helping that person cope with the new environment. This could mean involving the person in activities in the First Nations community or being with him or her as a part of a support system. Secondly, peer support givers can work formally with a professional helper, such as a counsellor, psychologist or s worker. For example, if the professional helper might be counselling a someone who wants to be more assertive in everyday life. When the person goes to use the newly learned assertiveness training, a peer support giver would go with person, at the request of the professional helper, while he or she uses the target skill. Later, the peer support giver can then share with the person how he or she did and well as offer encouragement. Later, the peer support giver can share with the professional helper on the ways that the person could be more effective or level of progress in being more assertive. The result is that more in-depth help can be offered along with follow-up care.

The underlying power of effective communication skills of the peer support training is the quality of the helping relationship. A helping relationship can be defined as a partnership in which one person has the intention of nurturing the growth, development, maturity, and coping skills of anot While there are a variety of theoretical approaches to helping, it is the attitude and feelings of the helper which is most important ingredient of the helping relationship. These ingredients that form the foundation of the helping relationship are:

l. trust felt in the helper;

2. empathy of the helper;

3. the feelings of independence they had in making choices.

What this means to the peer support giver is that the attitude that you bring into a relationship can make more of an impression than anything else. This does not mean that attitude alone will create a positive helping relationship, because expertise is also an important attribute of the helper. What it means is that the peer support giver must take into a helping relationship an attitude of caring along with the skills of a helper.

Helping is basically about empowerment of others. What is empowerment? Leigh (LaFromboise, Trimble & Mohatt, l992) describes it as the "development of skills enabling the person of color to implement interpersonal influence, improve role performance, and develop an effect support system" (p. 153). In short, empowering others, is the ability to others take control over their lives, which could mean reinforcing positive self esteem, improving coping skills, strengthening family and community support networks, just to name a few.

The peer support network has its basis in the social learning and the network therapy theories. These two particular theories are the most supportive of specific cultural and traditional practices of First Nations people and contain few cultural biases. The social learning theory in allows individuals and the community to define the target problem to be solved and spells out procedures for bringing about solutions. In addition, the social learning model is concrete and specific and based on skills training. Healthy living is a process of learning positive life skills. Thus problems occur because there is a deficient in a person's life and by learning a skill that ends the deficit, the problem can be overcome. This might take the form of assertiveness training, utilizing traditional healing practices, or learning how to tap into family or community resources. Another feature of the social learning theory is the emphasis on learning a new behavoiur through modeling. Individual empowerment is strongly associated with community empowerment. Thus empowerment might mean learning to be bicultural or being able to accept traditional cultural practices, while at the same time being able to operate successfully in the dominate society. Those who have a strong sense of identity, yet are able to transcend other cultures are valuable mentors and role models. In effect, these mentors and role models demonstrate powerful interpersonal skills that can be passed on to others in the community. As mentioned earlier, network the augments the social learning approach by emphasizing the use of the extended families and community. Thus, the helper becomes "catalyst" for empowerment through helping others utilize the resources in the community, such as traditional healers and building a satisfying support network. Network therapy is very informal and involves more people in the helping process, as well as the broader spiritual elements that makes life meaningful.

What makes life meaningful? Being a social - spiritual person means embracing humanity and nature in the context of the family and community. To discover one's place is in life is a basic human motivator. For Nations people meaning is of particular importance, because they are reexamining their past experiences and exploring new options for living. The search for meaning is a strong motivator for living a satisfying life. We believe that meaning is so central, that it underlies behaviour, thoughts, and feelings. Many First Nations people who are coping with new conditions in their lives, such as being away from family or immersion in an alien living situation, may be asking themselves their purpose in being in a new situation. Self doubts may develop creating greater stress. For example, a person may feel sad because of being away from home, which brings about a feeling of loss and alienation. It is possible, that this can lead to a sense of helplessness and dependency. The challenge for the peer support giver is to turn this around. Thus empowerment takes on another dimension - helping others make sense of the world around them and the best way to cope with new situations.

The training components consist of this introductory module, plus three parts that focus on important helping skills, problem issues, and the utilization of community resources. Part I focuses on skills, while Part II focuses on issues that the peer support giver might face. Part III explores how to use resources in the community. The training uses an active and experiential training mode that offers hands on experience. Thus, after learning some basic helping skill, the peer support giver can practice those skills in Part II on specific issues. The final module outlines how the peer support giver can be utilized by the First Nations House of Learning. A short synopsis follows:

Introduction: This module provides an overview of the

peer support training, including training and modules. It is designed to build a trusting working relationship in the group and answer all questions in regard to the training.

PART I SKILLS TRAINING

The Helping Relationship: This module explores the basis of helping, including the two phases of the helping process and how to provide feedback. Feedback is viewed not only as an important element of the training, but as an important skill of the peer support giver.

Active Listening: This module stresses the importance of listening--not only to what is said, but to how it is said. This means learning to understand non-verbal and verbal information that people are using. To do this the peer su giver needs to know how to ask the right questions as well as decipher what someone is feeling. Many people feel uncomfortable to talk about feelings, so understanding the feelings below the surface is very important. The proper use of encouragement or positive reinforcement is also explored.

Dereflection: Meaning is considered an essential motivator in the lives of others. The process of exploring meaning is through the skill of dereflection, which is stressed in this module. This skill helps the peer support giver to go beyond feelings and explore needs and values.

Self-Disclosure: The focus of this module is how to use self-disclosure to help others explore problems and issues. Self-disclosure helps equalize the helping process and allows the peer support giver to share important elements of his/her experience.

Problem Solving: Problem solving is really a framework that the peer support giver can use to help someone find a satisfactory solution. A problem solving paradigm will be introduced, that not only assists in finding a solution, but also becomes a method for teaching problem solving to others.

PART II ISSUES

Loneliness: Loneliness is a problem that plagues many First Nations people. The origins of loneliness are explored and discussed in this module. The skills of active listening, Dereflection, and self-disclosure are reviewed in working with those who feel alienated.

Substance Abuse: The causes and effects of this problem are explored along with strategies for helping others get beyond it. The skills of active listening, dereflection, self-disclosure and problem solving are reviewed in working with those who have been abused.

Self Esteem: Reinforcing self-esteem is a major concern of peer support givers, and this module demonstrates how to utilize the positive asset search. The strategy of the positive asset search is based on the effective use of dereflection (meaning).

PART III NETWORKING

Building Relationships Within the Community: The focus of this module is the exploration of the characteristics of social networks and the ways in which the peer support giver can help others build relationships. The skills of active listening, Dereflection, and self-disclosure are reviewed in working with those who feel utilizing community resources.

The Referring: Ethical considerations, personal limitations, and how and when to refer are explored in this module. In addition, participants continue to integrate empathy, dereflection, and self-disclosure into their helping strategies.

Working with the First Nations Learning Centre: This module is devoted to helping the peer support givers work together in a community of support. The emphasis is on sharing problems of helping and personal concerns of the peer support givers. It is hoped that this module will be the basis of an ongoing meeting of peer support givers.

The peer support training program uses three type of complementary activities: discussions, skill development, and experiential group exercises. Each module has all three type of activities that can be chosen, depending on the group and/or the inclination of the presenters. All of the activities have been tested and used with success. Our experience is that a mixture of activities works the best, but the more involved the participants are in the learning process, the more meaningful the material becomes.

1. Discussion activities are of two types. One type is the presentation of a prepared lecture and then a discussion of the major concepts. The other type is the presentation of brief types of information, cases or questions that allow the participants to focus on critical issues involved in the helping process.

2. The single-skills approach, presents one skill at a time, which is mastered before the next skill is presented. Each skill is like a building block that and actively involves the participants in the learning processes (i.e., "learning by doing"). Participants learn in a small and large group. Figure 1.1 demonstrates the following steps on ho training utilizes an active approach to skill development:

Figure 1.1: Training Steps

DEVELOPMENT OF SKILLS

3. Experiential exercises that immerse the participants in issues, problems or dilemmas that focus them on personal reflections in which the presenter is the primary facilitator. These activities allow the participants to have a more introspective experience by focussing on themselves and their personal development. Many of the activities allow them to use helping skills in a more relaxed atmosphere.

COMMENT: At this point you can ask the for any questions about the training. If you are using the introductory lecture as a way of attracting participants, The time, place, instructor(s), and the number and length of modules should be emphasized and written down on a blackboard or given in a hand out. It is good to give your telephone number or some place where you can be reached to answer individual or private questions.

Figure 1.2: The Helping Pyramid

Compare the ideas of the participants and, if necessary theirs to the "helping pyramid." For best results draw a pyramid on the blackboard so the participants can get an idea of involvement. For example, effective helping has a solid foundation of listening skills, etc. The higher up on the pyramid, the more complex the skills and involvement required. End the discussion by summarizing the effective peer support giver.

Variation: Explore with the participants their assumptions about the helping process, counselling and psychology. The discussion can begin by outlining some of the following topics from the work of Teresa LaFromboise, Joseph Trimble and Gerald Mohatt (1993):

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