Systematic Review to Assess Peer Support Efficacy in Mental Health Recovery

Abstract

Background: Peer support is becoming recognised as a key element of recovery-oriented mental health care due to growing evidence of its beneficial benefits on hope, empowerment, and social connectivity. However, there is ongoing disagreement over its therapeutic effectiveness and system level integration.

Objective: Analysis of the studies on peer support interventions in mental health recovery was carried out through latest research studies published in the last 5 years focusing on emerging concerns, implementation, efficacy, and technology developments.

Methodology: A comprehensive search of PubMed, PsycINFO, and Scopus yielded peer-reviewed papers, including implementation assessments, systematic reviews, qualitative investigations, and randomised controlled trials. The studies were subjected to critical appraisal and theme analysis.

Results: These studies showed that peer support was consistently associated with increase in individual recovery outcomes, despite inconsistent findings about symptom reduction and service use. High-fidelity interventions with systematic training and supervision demonstrated the biggest impact. Digital peer assistance expanded rapidly during the COVID-19 epidemic, proved to be quite effective, but it still requires further studies to ascertain its longterm impacts. Population-specific adjustments (e.g., juvenile, perinatal, refugee, and substance use settings) yielded promising results. The primary challenges were role uncertainty, worker well-being, stigma among the clinical team, and a lack of cost-effectiveness evidence.

Conclusions: Peer support offers unique recovery-oriented benefits and improves clinical care. To maximise impact, future research should prioritise cost-effectiveness evaluations, workforce sustainability methods, largescale trials in diverse situations, and standardised recovery outcomes. Peer roles must be included into mental health systems while remaining faithful to lived-experience principles and structural supports if substantial and long-lasting change is to occur.

Keywords: Peer Support; Mental Health Recovery; Lived Experience; Digital Interventions; Recovery-Oriented Practice; Implementation Science

Citation

Aftab A, Ali Khan S, Naureen SU, Shahzad N. Systematic Review to Assess Peer Support Efficacy in Mental Health Recovery. WebLog J Psychiatry Behav Sci. wjpbs.2026.a1704. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18376578