Evaluating the Impact of a Peer Support Program on Participants' Well-Being: Finding Belongingness Through the Women Veterans Network.

Abstract

Background: Loss of belongingness may be particularly pronounced for women veterans, representing a threat to long-term well-being. Improvements in social support through engagement in a structured peer support program may mitigate the negative effects of loss of belongingness on well-being.

Objective: We assessed the impact of participation in a peer-led, structured, social support group-based network on outcomes related to well-being [i.e., belongingness, social support, quality of life, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression]. Subgroup analyses examined relative impact among those who completed the intervention and those reporting clinical levels of PTSD and depression symptoms.

Methods: We analyzed survey data consisting of reliable and valid measures collected at baseline, postgroup and 3-month follow-up among 393 participants in the Woven Veterans Network's (WoVeN) group program.

Results: We observed improvements in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms over time. We observed additional benefits among those who received an adequate dose of the intervention (significant improvements on PTSD, belongingness) and those with clinical levels of mental health symptoms (significant improvements on PTSD, depression, belongingness, quality of life).

Conclusions: Impacts on social support may have been masked due to ceiling effects given wide dispersion baseline social support in this sample. This social support network had particularly profound impacts on well-being for those veterans who suffered from conditions for which isolation and loneliness are particularly salient.