Defining Digital Peer Support: A Framework to Preserve Core Values in the Rush to Digitize

Digital peer support has gained momentum as mental health services have increasingly incorporated technology. The term digital peer support remains poorly defined, however, risking appropriation by commercial developers, resulting in a lack of clarity in the research on digital peer support, and posing reputational risks for technology developers and the emerging peer support profession. By drawing on established peer support principles and lived expertise, the authors developed a five-domain framework to clarify what constitutes authentic digital peer support. This framework was built to guide technology developers, researchers, service providers, and peer supporters in ensuring that digital tools remain true to peer support's activist roots and relational foundations.