Across mental health services research, increasing emphasis has been placed on the importance of involving youth and young adults with lived experience across the areas of program development, service implementation and research. Both peer-led research and research on peer or youth-led service components in early intervention nevertheless remain under-researched and under-represented in both the scientific literature and academic conferences. The goal of this symposium is to showcase four exemplary peer-led and/or peer-involvement focused projects from the US and UK in order to increase the visibility of youth/peer research leadership and its transformative potential. These presentations span research on the underlying mechanisms of peer support for young adults (DuBrul), emerging best practices in young adult peer supervision (Klodnick), the role of service user involvement in addressing implementation gaps in early intervention services (Allen) and in seeding innovation (EASA Young Adult Leadership Council). The symposium chair will begin with a brief overview of the international landscape of peer involvement in research and program development, followed by the four presentations, and concluding with a group Q & A. e EASA program
Assistant Professor, Department of Mental Health Law & Policy; Clinical Assistant Professor, Yale University School of Medicine, Program for Recovery and Community Health (PRCH), University of South Florida
