Issues that Peer Educator’s have to deal with:
1. Increased workload
2. Administrative or management issues
3. Lack of recognition
4. Feelings of helplessness
5. Lack of boundaries (time & energy)
6. Disclosures
1. Increased workload
• Extra time to plan your peer educator sessions
• Time to gather your materials• Materials are often not provided by
management • Time to research• My time is not my own (e.g. tea / lunch/ on
the taxi going home)• Time away from family while preparing
2. Administration or management problems
• Lack of support from my superiors: Sometimes they support me emotionally but not practically, (making sure that my colleagues attend the sessions) others say sometimes they support me practically but not emotionally.
• No clear referral system in place• Don’t have a programme or a curriculum to
follow – I get training and then just have to speak about whatever I feel like to my peers.
3. Lack of recognition
• Sometimes feel unappreciated by both peers and management
• Management & supervisors may not be aware of the time & effort involved
• Due to confidentiality issues management are often not aware of the benefits of having Peer Educators in the workplace
• A lot of confidential information is shared and the impacts on the Peer Educators life are not apparent to management
4. Feelings of helplessness
• Referral system not in place or ineffective
• Ineffectiveness of public health systems
• When colleague is in denial
• When colleagues make use of unscientific treatment
• Their colleagues say that they are bored with HIV and don’t want to attend
4. Feelings of helplessness continued
• When management is not supportive or involved
• When I suspect that one of my colleagues is HIV positive but will not admit or speak to me. I feel I don’t have the skills to get my colleague to even admit that he may be at risk
• I feel sad when my colleague is dismissed for incapacity because his/her support system is then removed as they don’t have any support in the community due to the stigma.
5. Lack of boundaries
• I just can’t say “no” to my colleagues when they need help.
• Phone calls come at all hours of the day or night
• I do weekend & night time work• My colleagues & the managers have
unrealistic expectations of me but I don’t do anything about it.
• I like to feel needed, so I can’t say no.
7. Disclosure
• My colleagues disclose the following: – Their HIV status– Their love affairs – Rape– Substance abuse– Relatives who are sick or dying & ask for
assistance– Their financial problems– Their emotional and psychological problems– Their social problems– Their work problems
Managing these issues causes stress because Peer Educators:
• Have not been trained as counsellors but have to deal with all kinds of personal disclosures
• May not have enough knowledge to answer difficult questions
• Need regular debriefing, mentorship and coaching
Excellent Peer Educator Training programmes would help to reduce the problems
that Peer Educators are having
Proposed minimum requirements in Peer Ed training
• Receive a minimum of 7 to 10 days of training• This training must include skill development in how to
transfer knowledge & how to develop skills instead of simple giving of information and expecting peer educators to transfer this information adequately
• Lesson plans & curricula to follow the training must be given to the peer educators
• A monitoring and tracking tool must be implemented to track the peer educators progress with their colleagues.
• Send peer educators for refresher training at least every 2 years.
• Increase peer educators skills by facilitating counsellor training – very important for peer educators to have these skills after a VCT drive