TY - JOUR
T1 - 'Progression capitals'
T2 - How homeless health peer advocacy impacts peer advocates
AU - Annand, P J
AU - Platt, Lucy
AU - Rathod, Sujit D
AU - Hosseini, Paniz
AU - Guise, Andrew
N1 - Funding Information:
Research funded by National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) – Public Health Research programme (Award ID: 17/44/40 ). Gold Open Access funded by University of Surrey.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022
PY - 2022/4/30
Y1 - 2022/4/30
N2 - This article presents analysis from a qualitative evaluation of a homeless health peer advocacy (HHPA) service in London, United Kingdom. Whilst evidence is growing for the impact of peer programming on clients, understanding of the impact on peers themselves is limited in the context of homelessness. Research here is vital for supporting sustainable and effective programmes. Analysis of interview data with 14 current and former peer advocates, 2 members of staff and 3 external stakeholders suggests peer advocacy and its organizational setting can generate social, human, cultural and physical resources to help peer advocates fulfil their own life goals. We explore these with reference to 'recovery capital', reframed as 'progression capitals' to reflect its relevance for pursuits unrelated to clinical understandings of recovery. Progression capitals can be defined as resources to pursue individually determined goals relating to self-fulfilment. We find engagement with, and benefits from, a peer advocacy service is most feasible among individuals already possessing some 'progression capital'. We discuss the value of progression capitals for peers alongside the implications of the role being unsalaried within a neoliberal political economy, and comment on the value that the progression capitals framework offers for the development and assessment of peer interventions more broadly.
AB - This article presents analysis from a qualitative evaluation of a homeless health peer advocacy (HHPA) service in London, United Kingdom. Whilst evidence is growing for the impact of peer programming on clients, understanding of the impact on peers themselves is limited in the context of homelessness. Research here is vital for supporting sustainable and effective programmes. Analysis of interview data with 14 current and former peer advocates, 2 members of staff and 3 external stakeholders suggests peer advocacy and its organizational setting can generate social, human, cultural and physical resources to help peer advocates fulfil their own life goals. We explore these with reference to 'recovery capital', reframed as 'progression capitals' to reflect its relevance for pursuits unrelated to clinical understandings of recovery. Progression capitals can be defined as resources to pursue individually determined goals relating to self-fulfilment. We find engagement with, and benefits from, a peer advocacy service is most feasible among individuals already possessing some 'progression capital'. We discuss the value of progression capitals for peers alongside the implications of the role being unsalaried within a neoliberal political economy, and comment on the value that the progression capitals framework offers for the development and assessment of peer interventions more broadly.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85125484670&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114770
DO - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114770
M3 - Article
C2 - 35240541
SN - 0277-9536
VL - 298
JO - Social Science & Medicine
JF - Social Science & Medicine
M1 - 114770
ER -
