Train Peer Supporters
Please see Disclaimer: Peer Support Resources below.
(Unit 1, Mod. 1.2, Section 2)Communication Skills
What is it?
Communication encompasses all ways in which information is relayed to others, and includes techniques such as active listening and sharing stories. Active listening is a skill that involves listening and responding to others to improve mutual understanding, openness, and honesty. Sharing stories is a skill that involves sharing experiences and stories from one's own life. It is a good way to provide support in one-on-one settings and is a particularly important part of some cultures.
Why is it important?
Being an effective communicator of stories and active listener is central to a strong peer support relationship. These skills help build rapport, understanding, and trust between peers.
Learn more about communication skills from the following resources:
- The Give and Take of Effective Communication is an online article by Ann Williams from Voice of the Diabetic, a quarterly publication of the NFB Diabetes Action Network, Summer 2007 Edition.
- The Diabetes Story-Telling Project is an example of a program through Diabetes UK where sharing stories had an impact on behavior change among Bangladeshi women with diabetes.
- The Community-University Institute for Social Research in Canada sponsored a project where Canadian aboriginal women shared their stories as part of an Outreach Diabetes Education Program.
- A journal article by Abdulhadi et al looked at patient-provider interactions from the perspective of patients with type 2 diabetes.
Find handouts, tools, and educational modules on communication skills to help train peer supporters and offer peer support:
- "The Art of Active Listening" is a tip sheet of the 13 skills that make up Active Listening from the National Aging Information and Referral Support Center.
- The Center for Global Health Communication and Marketing offers downloadable curriculum in interpersonal communication and counseling skills.
- Patient-Physician Communication: Why and How is a handout on patient-provider communication.
Disclaimer: Peer Support Resources
Peers for Progress aims to serve peer support programs around the world by providing a compilation of web-based resources for developing and enhancing these programs. Framed by peer support's core functions as outlined in Learn, we selected these materials from varied sources and from materials provided to us. In doing so, we have sought to include materials that reflect state-of-the-art knowledge of diabetes, peer support, diabetes management, and health promotion. Users should exercise their own judgment in assessing the appropriateness of materials for their own setting and population. Peers for Progress assumes no responsibility for the quality of evidence on which materials are based or consequences of their use.
Peers for Progress has no financial interests with specific websites or organizations listed in this section. For a full listing of our partnerships, please read About Us.
If a user would like to suggest additional resources, please Contact Us. As you use and possibly adapt resources, please give credit to the developing organization.
Peers for Progress is a program of the American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation and supported by the Eli Lilly and Company Foundation.