{"id":415793,"date":"2026-04-24T20:43:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T20:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/415793\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T20:43:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T20:43:13","slug":"hawkes-bay-hospital-ed-to-get-peer-mental-health-support-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/415793\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawke\u2019s Bay Hospital ED to get peer mental health support workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Doocey said emergency departments could be overwhelming environments for people in crisis, and peer support workers could help bridge that gap.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are going to an emergency department in mental health crisis, this can feel incredibly scary,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, people can have a peer support specialist alongside them who understands what they\u2019re going through and can help support them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peer support workers are people who have experienced mental health challenges themselves and are trained to support others through similar situations.<\/p>\n

They will provide non-clinical support alongside ED teams, including sitting with patients, helping them navigate services, and advocating for their interests.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe support provided will look different depending on the person\u2019s needs,\u201d Doocey said.<\/p>\n

He said feedback from hospitals already using the model had been \u201coverwhelmingly positive\u201d, with patients reporting they felt more heard and better connected to follow-up care.<\/p>\n

The Hawke\u2019s Bay service is expected to be operational by mid-2026, with recruitment currently underway. <\/p>\n

The rollout forms part of a broader push to expand peer-led services, including crisis recovery cafes, eating disorder services, and alternatives to acute care settings, with Hawke\u2019s Bay expecting to launch crisis recovery cafes this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Doocey said emergency departments could be overwhelming environments for people in crisis, and peer support workers could help…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[17546,96689,17224,17545,103,3175,61,60,2448,410,411,182386,2057,330,6936],"class_list":{"0":"post-415793","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-bay","9":"tag-ed","10":"tag-get","11":"tag-hawkes","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-hospital","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-mental","17":"tag-mental-health","18":"tag-mentalhealth","19":"tag-peer","20":"tag-support","21":"tag-to","22":"tag-workers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}