The study focuses on the formation and practices of peer support of young adults with mental health problems. The aim of the peer support activities is to increase 'life management and social skills development' in order to integrate young adults into education and/or the labour market. Not only do peer support offer a place for mutual support and creative activities, it can also open up opportunities to get trained as peer tutor or as so called experts by experience in mental health work. The increasing relevance of peer support can be seen as part of the structural changes and marketisation of social and health care policy in Finland. In this paper, I will outline the main ideas of my forthcoming post doctoral research project, which aim is i.) to construct a genealogy of the formation of peer support from patient’s discussion groups to guided functional peer support model with trained group leaders and ii.) to analyse what kind of subjectivities and forms of agency are made possible by the practices of peer support and iii.) how do young adults acting in these groups negotiate with the ideals of the able bodied/minded worker/student?