{"id":604302,"date":"2026-04-24T20:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T20:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/604302\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T20:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T20:40:08","slug":"hawkes-bay-hospital-ed-to-get-peer-mental-health-support-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/604302\/","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":604303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[23768,17008,3261,208130,97,1493,984,259,260,262819,7461,826,8586],"class_list":["post-604302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-bay","tag-ed","tag-get","tag-hawkes","tag-health","tag-hospital","tag-mental","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-peer","tag-support","tag-to","tag-workers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}