Acknowledgements
The participants on this project were some of the most inspirational people I have met and I would like to thank them for their courage and honesty in sharing their stories for the project. I share their belief in the power of peer support and I hope that these pages will bring some comfort to those looking for answers.

I received invaluable support from Belinda Lennox, John Powell, Sara Ryan, and my buddy Susan Kirkpatrick throughout the project, for which I am grateful. I would also like to thank Sue Ziebland, Ruth Sanders, Elizabeth Woolliams, Angela Martin, and Gavin Hubbard for their generous advice and support. I am especially grateful to those people who helped with recruitment, in particular Clare Grant and her colleagues at Solent Mind, and Matt Williams and Sandra Evans at the Academic Health Services Network.

Project Advisory panel 

Belinda Lennox, Prof., Principal Investigator and Lead Applicant, Deputy Director NIHR CLAHRC Oxford, Clinical Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford

Chair: Sara Ryan, Dr, Principal Investigator, Senior Research Lead, HERG, Nuffield department of primary care health sciences, University of Oxford

John Powell, Assoc. Prof., Digital Health Lead, HERG, Consultant Adviser NICE, Visiting Professor, Kings College London.

Susan Kirkpatrick, Research Supervisor, Senior Researcher, HERG, Nuffield department of primary care health sciences, University of Oxford

Dr Helen Salisbury, GP and Medical Advisor, Health Experiences Research Group, University of Oxford

Nicola Mattocks, Young person Advisory, Champion for StepUp: Transitions

Nina Khan, Young person Advisory, Champion for StepUp: Transitions

Sarah Way, Project Manager, StepUp: transitions, Rethink Mental Illness

Damien Ridge, Professor and Head of Psychology, University of Westminster

Matt Williams, Early Intervention in Psychosis Network Manager, Oxford Academic Health Science Network (AHSN), Department of Psychiatry, Warneford Hospital, Oxford

Paula Lavis, Strategic Lead, Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition

Sean O’Mahony, Social worker and Quality Champion, Deputy Team Manager, Quality lead, Oxfordshire Early Intervention Services

Matthew Taylor, Dr, Clinical Senior Lecturer in Bipolar Disorder, Department of Psychosis studies, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, Kings College London, and Associate Clinical Director, Early Intervention Pathway and Hon Consultant Psychiatrist, Early Intervention inpatient unit, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.

Rachel Upthegrove, Dr, Clinical Senior Lecturer and Consultant Psychiatrist, Early Intervention, Institute for Mental Health, University of Birmingham, NIHR Clinical Research Network West Midlands Specialty Lead

Tsitsi Mlilo, Senior Practitioner in Medicine/CPN and Nurse prescriber, Early Intervention in Psychosis, Milton Keynes

Max Birchwood, Prof., Professor (Emiritus), University of Warwick

Also
Ruth Sanders, Research Delivery Project Manager, HERG, Nuffield department of primary care health sciences, University of Oxford

Vanessa Eade, Research Operations Assistant, HERG, Nuffield department of primary care health sciences, University of Oxford

Funders:
This research was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care Oxford at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health.