The Benefits of Providing Support

      Who benefits from support? In fact, those who give support may benefit even more than
those who receive it. In one study, recruited non-professionals with multiple sclerosis were
trained in active listening and taught to provide support to sixty-seven other people with multiple
sclerosis over a two-year period. The peer supporters were paid ten dollars an hour to provide
telephone support for fifteen minutes a month throughout the two-year study.
      The peer supporters were recruited through several means. Some had volunteered to
participate in a pilot group and were selected because they demonstrated an ability to
communicate with others in the group and were willing to commit to a two-year effort. The
Massachusetts chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society recommended others because
they were helpful in volunteer activities.  Peer supporters completed a questionnaire before
beginning to give support, and again after one and two years of providing support. The
sixty-seven participants who received support also completed questionnaires at the same
intervals.
     Three years after they finished providing active support, the peer telephone supporters
were queried about the changes they noticed over the course of their participation in the study.
In this follow-up evaluation, the peer supporters reported improvement in more areas as
compared to improvements experienced by the patients who received the support. They
reported improved listening skills, a stronger awareness of the existence of a higher power,
increased self-acceptance, and enhanced self-confidence. Peer supporters also reported
experiencing a sense of inner peace that allowed them to listen to others without judgment or
interference.
     Interestingly, these aspects of well-being accelerated during the second year of the study.
As the supporters became more effective and more outer-directed, a shift occurred in the way
they thought about themselves. Participants who received support exhibited change in a number
of these areas as well, but the changes were less pronounced than those experienced by the
people who provided the support.
    What brought about these positive changes for people giving support to others? The authors
of the study propose that these shifts occurred because of the number of personal stories the
peer supporters exchanged with the people they supported. As they heard more and more
stories of other people with multiple sclerosis facing challenges, the supporters were able to
disengage from their usual ways of thinking about themselves and their condition. In other
words, as their focus moved from concern about themselves to concern for others, their
attitudes about their own multiple sclerosis altered as well. As one supporter commented: "It's
tough to get depressed, because you're helping someone." Another supporter explained the
change this way: "There's a quietness when I'm talking to someone, and I'm really listening to
them. I have to make an effort not to try and top them. It's gotten easier. And I can listen, and I
become interested in what he's talking about. That's a change. There's a quietness in the soul
because of it."

Schwartz, C. E. and Sendor, M. (1999). Helping others helps oneself: Response shift effects in
peer support. Social Science & Medicine, 48, No. 11, 1563-1575. In King, J. C. (2004). Cellular
wisdom: Decoding the body's secret language. (204-205). Berkeley, CA: Celestial Arts
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