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Peer Supervision: A Model for Enhanced Vocational and Emotional Support
For many of us in the field of mental health and substance use disorder, the idea of peer services feels like a new and welcome change that brings with it equity and a workforce with a more complete perspective on lived experience. Many people are surprised to learn that peer services have a...
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Peering In: A Look at Mental Health Peer Providers and How They Help People Recover
I believe that recovery is possible. Not just for me, but for EVERYONE. Does this mean that everyone recovers? No, because not everyone is taught the skills to recover. Also, once a person learns the skills, they must choose to use them. My peer specialist colleagues and I can give you a flashlight...
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Integrating Peers in CCBHCs: The Power of Lived Experience
Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs) have shifted the way we approach treatment and the delivery of behavioral health services. Those who hold the designation of CCBHC have been tasked with providing a person-centered model that combines mental health services, substance use...
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Centered in Lived Experiences: Peers Reshape Engagement in California’s CARE Court
Living with the symptoms of a serious mental illness can feel isolating and debilitating. It can also breed distrust, which makes it difficult to accept services and support. These challenges were top of mind when the CARE Act launched in Los Angeles in December 2023, establishing a civil court...
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The Peer Advocate: Role Model, Listener, and Problem Solver for Older Adults
Peer Advocates have changed the way that we practice behavioral healthcare at Service Program for Older People (SPOP) – and have changed the lives of the older adults we treat. SPOP is a community-based behavioral health provider for older adults (55+) based in New York City. We serve...
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Integrating Peer Professionals in Complex Behavioral Health Systems
NYC Health + Hospitals, the nation’s largest municipal health care system and New York City’s largest behavioral health provider, serves individuals with complex behavioral health and social needs including homelessness, justice involvement, and chronic medical conditions. In this landscape,...
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Bridging Families and Systems: Family Peer Support in Children’s Mental Health Services
As soon as one learns that they are going to be a parent, the planning and preparation begins. It is a new journey. A journey that does not necessarily come with a handbook of how-tos, sure there are books, resources, literature etc. that can ‘guide’ you but there really isn’t a one tell all...
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Peer Services in Behavioral Health: New York State Leading the Way
Individuals with lived experience with mental illness have a unique perspective that can play a crucial role in helping others on the path to recovery. A key facet of reaching and forming bonds with individuals seeking support is the strong connection peer support workers offer. We have made...
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The Value of Being Seen: Acknowledging the Importance of Shared Identities and Lived Experiences
It is a well-known fact that our traditional mental health care system has experienced a strain over the past six years. Not only are there ongoing needs for services across communities, but also an ongoing staffing crisis that impedes the successful delivery of those services. Mental health...
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Beyond Boundaries: Oh, the Places Peer Support Can Go!
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...
