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This page is an AI-assisted Turkish summary of the study presented at the 26th World Congress of Psychiatry. The study belongs to the presenting authors; please refer to the original source when citing it.

SO252

From pilot to scale: Professionalizing family peer support in psychiatry in France

FROM PILOT TO SCALE: PROFESSIONALIZING FAMILY PEER SUPPORT IN PSYCHIATRY IN FRANCE

Professional family peer support grounded in experiential knowledge is an organizational innovation that can be scaled up from a pilot in a local psychiatric catchment area to the regional level and requires training, institutional recognition, and a clear framework.

The aim is to describe the development of a professional family peer support program in France, from a local trial in a psychiatric catchment area (94G16) to a structured regional rollout. The 94G16 pilot was used as the reference model; key steps included institutional support, team preparation, selection of trained professional family peer supporters (PAF-Pro), integration into care teams, co-development of role descriptions, and psychological supervision. The scale-up phase includes sharing experiences, identifying and preparing interested teams, and assessing implementation levers at the departmental level; the rollout is based on a three-stage strategy (structuring, implementation, consolidation), success factors (institutional support, training, supervision, communication, shared indicators), and transferability grounded in recognizing experiential knowledge and integrating it with professional expertise. The findings indicate that professionalization depends on training, institutional recognition, and a clear operational framework. Reported positive outcomes include improvements in the therapeutic alliance, continuity of care, and recovery for patients; reduced tensions and enriched practice for teams; increased legitimacy for PAF-Pro; and better support, a greater sense of being understood, and reduced feelings of isolation for families. Initial resistance is reported to have become a driving force for organizational change, while scaling up requires awareness, formalization of the role, and secure career pathways. In conclusion, family peer support is presented as an organizational innovation that strengthens collaboration, with an emphasis on the need for structured roles, institutional recognition, and ongoing team support for regional rollout. The poster presents no quantitative outcome data or comparative analysis.

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