Peer respite houses

Domain V · Systemic, relational, group & community · 2012 · Northampton, Massachusetts

What it is

A peer respite is not a therapy and not something a psychotherapist runs. It is a service: a voluntary, short-term, overnight stay in an ordinary house, staffed and run entirely by people with lived experience of psychiatric diagnosis, trauma, hospitalisation, homelessness, substance use or…

Format

• Format. Residential, house-based, short stays. Afiya: 1 to 7 nights by design; extensions possible, usually 1 to 3 extra days; in FY15, 93% of stays were 7 days or less. Across the 2016 PREF sample, the average stay was 5.5 days and the average maximum allowed was 8.4 days. Variants: 2nd Story…
• The stay. The guest sets their own schedule. There are no treatment plans, required goals, groups, meetings, bedtimes or curfews. They can talk with staff and other guests, rest, keep going to work or school, and see friends. A plan for leaving is expected from the start: guests are asked to shape…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• activities becoming obligations.
• a guest with no post-stay connections at all.
• repeated stays with no growth in other supports.
• an early ending that the guest experiences as rejection. See section 5.
• clients who expect the house to manage medication or symptoms. It will not. See A10.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.