Protocol for a tailored self-compassion program for peer mentors within Canadian Spinal Cord Injury community service organizations

Individuals who serve as peer mentors within Canadian spinal cord injury (SCI) community service organizations are reporting compassion fatigue from their roles. One psychological resource that has the potential to reduce compassion fatigue and promote overall mental health among peer mentors is self-compassion. However, there is limited knowledge of any self-compassion programs that have been tailored to address the needs of these individuals. To address this limitation, this paper outlines a protocol to examine the feasibility, acceptability, implementation, and effectiveness of a tailored self-compassion program to reduce compassion fatigue and enhance compassion satisfaction, self-compassion, and mental health among peer mentors within Canadian SCI community service organizations.

The 6-week online program will be tested among 20 individuals (five separate groups of four) who serve as peer mentors within two Canadian SCI community service organizations.

Feasibility and implementation data will be collected throughout the duration of the program and post program while acceptability data will be collected post program. To evaluate the effectiveness of the program, we will follow a single-group quasi-experimental design with surveys (pre/post/follow-up) and semi-structured interviews (post/follow-up).

Results from this study are intended to inform the design of a self-compassion program for peer mentors within Canadian SCI community service organizations who experience compassion fatigue and reduced mental health.

Providing evidence for the effectiveness of this program could prove useful for Canadian SCI community service organizations who wish to better support and retain their peer mentors and thus improve the quality of support they provide to mentees.