Barriers and facilitators to implementing and sustaining peer support in kidney care

Peer support offers informational, appraisal and emotional support for people with kidney disease, is recommended in national policy, yet has low engagement levels. This paper reports results of a national survey and qualitative interviews in the UK with the aim of increasing understanding of peer support availability and its barriers and facilitators.

A recent narrative review highlighted the barriers and facilitators to peer support uptake among people with kidney disease however called on further studies to be conducted.

The survey, adapted from a 2012 version, was sent to all 83 UK kidney units. Semistructured interviews were conducted with staff, recipients and supporters from two units.

Forty-four units completed the survey, and 10 staff, 7 patients and 2 peer supporters were interviewed. The most common facilitators were promotion with staff and having peer support champions. Barriers included lack of staff time, guidance/information, other projects taking priority and too few supporters.

Little progress has been made since 2012; a proportion of units without peer support remains significant, with similar barriers identified in 2020. Services could be designed to limit the time needed for their creation and maintenance through having simpler referrals and designating staff liaisons.

Peer support programmes should have passionate staff and volunteers, involve recipients in the design, recruit an array of supporters and establish evaluations to determine the progress/outcomes. A resource toolkit was developed in response to this project.

Findings from the national survey and qualitative interviews showed that more peer support optimisation and prioritisation is needed to ensure benefits are maximised.