The Missing Intercept: From Lived Experience to Lived Expertise – The Case for Justice Peers

• By: Helen "Skip" Skipper, CPS, MA NYC Justice Peer Initiative | NYC Board of Correction
• October 12th, 2026
• behavioral health workforce, criminal legal system, Fall 2026 Issue, incarceration, justice peers, lived expertise, peer support, reentry, Sequential Intercept Model
• 142    0

A behavioral health crisis can become a 911 call, which can then become police contact. Police contact can become arrest or, in some cases, death. Arrest can become detention, which interrupts medication, housing, employment, treatment, family connection, social supports, and recovery. When all is...

Beyond Boundaries: Oh, the Places Peer Support Can Go!

• By: Helen “Skip” Skipper, CPS, MA NYC Justice Peer Initiative
• April 21st, 2026
• behavioral health, criminal legal system, lived experience, peer support, public policy, recovery, reentry, Spring 2026 Issue, workforce development
• 1921    1

Peer support has always been bigger than the box systems tried to paint it in. Long before it was codified, credentialed, or added into service plans, it was ordinary folk reaching for one another—standing in the front, behind and to the side of each other sharing hard-earned wisdom, offering...