There is a large and growing body of evidence related to the important role that peer support can play in overall health and wellbeing for people living with chronic illness, forming a valuable part of the broader range of strategies people can adopt to better self-manage their health conditions and live happier lives. 

Peer Leaders Online Training (PLOT) is a free course from the Chronic Illness Alliance, designed as a step by step guide to setting up and running a peer support group. It can also be used to build the capacity of an existing group, or to train a new peer leader to take over.

The training is structured around core units and optional electives. The core units cover areas such as leadership and facilitation skills, navigating through difficult times, governance and financial matters, planning, and promoting your group. The electives currently on offer provide in-depth discussion guides and group activities to enable peer leaders to facilitate sessions on two important topics for peer support groups: illness and intimacy, and health literacy.

The course and electives are self-guided and you can work through each Unit at your own pace. For more detailed information about course content, you can download the Course Overview.

In addition to providing information and recommendations within each Unit, the course includes a range of activities, resources and templates that are designed to help you convert concepts into skills, and put theory into practice. Most of the materials are contained within the course, and there are also links to external resources online and in the community.

Once you have completed all core units and activities, you will be able to print a Certificate of Completion in recognition of your achievement.

Whether you are just starting out as a peer leader, or whether you have been in this position for some time, we trust you will learn about factors that contribute to good governance and effective leadership and get some more ideas about strategies you can use to make your peer support group even better!

Important Note: 

Based on feedback and suggestions from our course participants we are periodically revising and updating course content. This means that occasionally parts of the course may be temporarily unavailable.

We welcome your feedback and suggestions too!

Please email us at: cwalker@chronicillness.org,au