Strengthening Peer Support Across Borders:
Insights from the Gothenburg Meeting of the Baltic and Nordic Coorporation
In beginning of November representatives from Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, and Lithuania met in Gothenburg to review the status of the Nordplus project ‘Nordic and Baltic Coorporation for Peer Support Workers’, align expectations, and plan next steps toward the shared goal of strengthening peer-support practices across participating countries.
After two days together the representatives are now ready to embark on the next part of their journey together.
Website launch and conference
Next big step in the Nordic and Baltic collaboration is launching a common website which will feature learning materials and videos for use in the training of peer support workers. Furthermore, it will give an overview of the status of peer support in each of the participating countries.
Especially the videos will emphasize authentic experiences and practical insights into peer support. Giving practical perspectives on how to work with principles and guidelines for peer support and avoid peer drifting.
The Swedish representatives showed an inspiring video of a young woman whose life was changed after meeting a peer support worker. Stories like this will be posted on the website to create awareness about the possibilities of peer support.
The website is planned to launch at the beginning of 2026.
In May the organizations will invite relevant partners and representatives to a conference in Lithuania focusing on sharing knowledge from both the Nordplus project and the respective countries’ work with peer support in general.
New opportunities ahead
With the project ending in Summer 2026, an important decision was made at the meeting regarding a further collaboration between the organizations participating in ‘The Nordic and Baltic Corporation for Peer Support Workers’. All organizations were in agreement that they will work on extending the collaboration with new funding to further expand on the learning created with each meeting between countries.
Furthermore, ongoing collaboration will create an opportunity for securing that the website and learning materials stay updated, relevant and visible for those who seek information about implementing peer support and training peer support workers.
Background
The organizations participating in the project are:
- KBT Fagskole, Norway
- Nationell
Samverkan för Psykisk Hälsa, Sweden - Hlutverkasetur, Iceland
- NGO Mental Health Perspectives,
Lithuania - The Estonian Chamber of Peer Support Counselling, Estonia
The project is supported by the Nordplus Program.
You can read more about the Nordplus Program here.