Our advisors can offer your organization two options in how to approach these objectives:

1. Work with your local professional resources, either internally or externally or both, who can then take the lead,
2. Work as the stand-alone team to help lead your organization.

Also, it is important to note that the Team recognizes that each organization and community has their own dynamics and history, so their approach to working with an organization, though based on a solid foundation of best practices, does include customizing their work to respect the organizational or community needs.

The development of Trauma Support Systems requires step-by-step work with the organizational Leads, which we offer, then our specific area of expertise leads into the development of peer support services, which involves three basic steps.

1. Selection of Peers using a four-step process:

• Identification of peers who agree to participate as nominated by peers
• Peer Interview to validate the suitability
• Psychological testing and interview, to ensure wellness to perform peer support and that they are in a positive growth stage in their lived experience. (This can either be provided by a local psychologist or the use of our own MDSC Peer Support Team Psychologist)
• Meeting the organizational needs, taking into account where they live, where they work and their lived experience.

2. Training of Peers using the Mood Disorders Society of Canada 2–Day Peer Support Training program.

The curriculum that we use was formatted based on the, “Guidelines for the Practice and Training of Peer Support” first published by the Mental Health Commission in February, 2014, and the product of tried and true processes that can be adjusted to meet your organizational needs and has been reviewed and approved by the MDSC Board of Directors and Peer Support Services Advisors.

3. The Development of Peer Teams.

It is also well known that no one model of peer support will do all that can be required within an organization. Formal groups, with rules and guidelines, can include informal groups that can be built within the formal structure. Both formal group peers and informal group peers follow the same guidelines and rules and are both managed by the formal peer group manager, though it is more unstructured for the informal group. The only difference would be that those peers who are recognized as part of the informal group would be called upon to respond ad hoc, to the needs of a member who is refusing to accept the support of the formal group.

We also provide advice and services in the management of and training in:

• Developing awareness and resilience to trauma workshops for members and their families
• De-stigmatization of Mental Illness
• Family Awareness and Information Events
• Assisting your organization to effectively assess and address the 13 psychosocial factors to develop comprehensive strategies for ensuring a psychologically safe workplace regardless of how large or small, or whether in the public or private sector.
• Implementing Mental Health and Safety practices within the Workplace.

We look forward to working with you further. Should you have any further questions please feel free to contact either:

Sylvio (Syd) A Gravel, M.O.M.
Staff Sergeant (ret’d.), Ottawa Police Service,
Team Lead, Peer and Trauma Support Systems, PATSS
Author of: “56 Seconds”; “How to Survive PTSD and Build Peer Support”; and co-Author: “Walk the Talk”; “Slay the Toxic Dragon” At: www.56secondsbook.com
P.O. Box 63 Fitzroy Harbour, Ontario, Canada, K0A 1X0
Text: (613) 293-1507
e-mail: sagravel01@gmail.com

Brad McKay, CTSS
Staff Sergeant (ret’d.), York Regional Police,
Team Lead, Peer and Trauma Support Systems, PATSS
York Region CISM Team Alumni Lead and Advisor to the Executive, at www.yorkcism.com
Volunteer Peer Supporter, York Regional Police Association Family Support Team, at www.yrpa.ca
Director 228 Solutions Inc. brad228solutions@gmail.com (647) 963-9228