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Peer Specialist, Heal Thyself: Recovery at Age 75 is Not Too Late
The Dream Scene I Psychiatrist X: We’ve got you covered…. Psychiatrist Y: Smothered Psychiatrists X and Y: And if you don’t perform, we’ll make you permanent. Me: Let me out of here and we’ll all be free. Scene 2 Social Worker Z: We’re cancelling the group...
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The Power of a Peer Specialist: Sharing Lived Experience to Support Recovery
“It is people who go through suffering that have an empathy for the suffering of others.” - Mary Robinson The Journey Traveling through suffering is best shared. Learning from suffering and being able to pass on knowledge is a blessing. Working with mental health consumers, I can see...
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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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Supporting Recovery Through Peer Services: How Community-Based Support Helps People Reconnect, Heal, and Thrive
Peer services are often described as supportive, but at their best, they are transformational. Recovery is rarely a straight line, and it rarely happens in isolation. For many people living with mental health or substance use challenges, progress is shaped not only by treatment, but also by...
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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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The Power of Peer Support: Walking Alongside Someone Towards Recovery
I remember the nights I’d cry, looking in the mirror, not recognizing the girl I was looking at. I wanted and needed a way out. With so much shame and stigma around substance use and mental health, I did not know how to ask for help. The process of calling detoxes and getting certain documents...
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City Voices: A Peer‑Run Legacy of Connection, Recovery, and Community
In 1995, a man named Ken Steele began what he described as his recovery from a “30‑year schizophrenic odyssey.” His story stretched across the United States — from Hawaii to New York City — through periods of homelessness, halfway houses, and profound disconnection. Everything changed...
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Behavioral Health News Spotlight on Excellence: An Interview with Mary Brite, COO of Outreach Development Corporation, on Staying Mission-Driven Through Continuous Change
Overview In this interview, Mary Brite, Chief Operating Officer of Outreach Development Corporation, discusses how behavioral health leaders can navigate continuous change by anchoring to mission clarity, building strong organizational structures, and fostering a culture of listening,...
