Peer is defined as a person of equal standing. In the context of providing peer support, the word peer is used in a broader sense to refer to people who share in common a mutual lived experience. However, in the field of mental health education it is necessary to define peer in a stricter sense as someone who is either a co-worker or a person who works in a similar organizational background, or someone of the same generation or cultural background who has suffered the effects of mental illness.

The reason for this more precise definition is in relation to a concept referred to as “power differential.” Social power is the ability to influence others. There are natural power differentials in many (but not all) relationships, including those between parent and child, teacher and student, employer and employee, and health care practitioner and client.

In theory and in ethical practice, the power differential is beneficial to the relationship, however when providing mental health education this power differential may prove, in many cases, to work against achieving the emotional resonance required to successfully transmit the understanding that people suffering from mental illnesses are “just like you and me”.