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Mentorship and Leadership in Advancing Behavioral Health Equity
Growing up in Jamaica, Queens, in a working-class family, I learned early that one’s circumstances do not define one’s potential. My grandparents instilled in me the value of perseverance and the belief that education is a powerful equalizer. I was driven not only to advance myself, but also to...
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Your Leadership Style Will Shape Your Organizational Culture
Organizational culture is the collection of values, beliefs, and attitudes that shape the way a firm operates, that is, how its people think, feel, and act (Gutterman, 2025). Organizational culture can evolve, but it is not accidental. It is shaped and sustained by its leadership (Jaiyeola et al.,...
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Strengthening Peer Services Through Partnership
The expansion of peer-delivered services is one of the most significant developments in behavioral health over the past decade. What was once a rare, little-known role has become mainstream. A 2024 report by the Peer Recovery Center of Excellence estimated that more than 100,000 individuals...
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Peer Support in Practice: Workplace Strategies and Professional Development
The field of peer support is quickly gaining prominence and visibility across the domains of behavioral health and substance use services. Georgia was the first state to provide Medicaid-billable mental health peer services in 1999 - it was not until 2012 that Medicaid billing was authorized for...
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Addressing Workplace Stigmatization of Peer Colleagues Through Institutional Courage
It is well documented that people with mental illness and substance use disorders (MI/SUD) are stigmatized across all levels of society. So, it is not a surprise that peer support specialists regularly experience stigmatization in the workplace, including negative messages from colleagues about...
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Measuring What Matters in Peer Support: Using Competencies and Fidelity to Strengthen the Workforce
Introduction: The Next Phase of Peer Support Development Peer support, a cornerstone of recovery-oriented behavioral healthcare, is a rapidly expanding service model nationally. Delivered by individuals with lived experience of mental health challenges, substance use, trauma, or disability, peer...
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Implementing and Sustaining Peer Support: The Recovery Workforce Learning Collaborative (RWLC)
The integration of peer recovery support specialists represents a significant shift in behavioral health systems. Peers offer unique perspectives and authenticity that strengthen recovery-oriented systems of care (Davidson et al., 2021). Drawing on lived experience, they bring insights that support...
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From Awareness to Action: How SAFE Workplace Mental Health Training Helps Workplaces Recognize, Respond, and Connect
Workplace mental health challenges are often visible long before they are addressed. Changes in mood, attendance, communication, focus, or behavior may signal that an employee is struggling, yet many workplaces lack a clear and practical way to respond. Supervisors and coworkers are not trained...
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Strengthening Peer Services in Behavioral Health: Operational Considerations for Sustainable Integration
As a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) and Behavioral Health Care Manager working within integrated care systems, I regularly see how deeply relationships and social environments shape an individual’s worldview, self-confidence, and sense of safety in the world. Recovery does not...
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Workforce Solutions in Behavioral Health: Insights from SMA Healthcare
The Behavioral Healthcare Workforce Crisis The behavioral healthcare sector faces one of the most severe workforce shortages in decades. As of 2023, an estimated 169 million individuals in the U.S. live in Mental Health Professional Shortage Areas, which is projected to worsen by 2037 (National...
