Georgia's Certified Peer Specialist Project
"Certified Peer Specialists
work from the perspective of "having been there." Through their lived
experience with recovery, they lend unique insight into mental illness
and what makes recovery possible."
(Rodney Ware, founder of ADHD Coaching Inc., is a State Certified Peer Specialist)
Certified Peer Specialists are responsible for the implementation of peer support services, which are Medicaid reimbursable under Georgia's Rehab Option. They also serve on Assertive Community Treatment Teams (ACT), as Community Support Individuals (CSI) and in a variety of other services designed to assist the peers they are partnered with in reaching the goals they wish to accomplish in their personal recovery journeys.
A natural outgrowth of the 1999 Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health has been the realization of the value of peer-to-peer support in the acquisition of real recovery. Certified Peer Specialists provide hope and role model that possibility to every peer they are partnered with. As paid employees of our public and private mental health providers, CPSs neatly transition ownership of the program into the hands of their peers.
A portion of the Georgia Certified Peer Specialist Project is funded through a grant from the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Mental Health Services. This federal grant is administered through the Georgia Mental Health Consumer Network, in collaboration with the State Office of Consumer Relations and Recovery.
Key to the successful implementation of CPSs in service delivery roles in consumer-operated Peer Centers, in Peer Supports, on ACT teams and as CSI providers is the understanding of what creates recovery and how to build environments conducive to recovery.
This role is not interchangeable with traditional staff that works from the perspective of their training and status as licensed health care providers. Certified Peer Specialists work from the perspective of "having been there." Through their lived experience with recovery, they lend unique insight into mental illness and what makes recovery possible.
Job Description, Responsibilities, Standards an Qualifications
Under immediate to general supervision, the Certified Peer Specialist (CPS) provides peer support services; serves as a consumer advocate; provides consumer information and peer support for consumers in emergency, outpatient or inpatient settings.
The CPS performs a wide range of tasks to assist consumers in regaining control over their own lives and over their own recovery process. The CPS will role model competency in recovery and ongoing coping skills.
1. Using the 10-step goal setting process the CPS will:
a. Assist consumers in articulating personal goals for recovery.
b. Assist consumer in determining the objectives the consumer needs to take in order to reach his or her recovery goals.
2. The CPS will document the following on the Individual Recovery Resiliency (IRRP) by:
a. Assisting consumers in determining "Problems."
b. Assisting consumers in identifying recovery goals.
c. Assisting consumers in setting objectives.
d. Determining interventions based on consumers recovery/life goals.
e. Observing progress consumers make toward meeting objectives.
f. Understanding and utilizing specific interventions necessary to assist
consumers in meeting their recovery goals.
3. Utilizing their specific training, the CPS will:
a. Lead as well as teach consumers how to facilitate Recovery Dialogues
b. Assist consumers in setting up and sustaining self-help (mutual support) groups.
c. Assist consumers in creating a Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP).
d. Utilize and teach problem solving techniques with individuals and groups.
e. Teach consumers how to identify and combat negative self-talk.
f. Teach consumers how to identify and overcome fears.
g. Support the vocational choices consumers make and assist them in overcoming job-related anxiety.
h. Assist consumers in building social skills in the community that will enhance job acquisition and tenure.
i. Assist non-consumer staff in identifying program environments that are conducive to recovery; lend their unique insight into mental illness and what makes recovery possible.
j. Attend treatment team meetings to promote consumer's use of self-directed
recovery tools.
4. Utilizing their unique recovery experience, the CPSs will:
a. Teach and role model the value of every individual's recovery experience.
b. Assist the consumer in obtaining decent and affordable housing of his or her choice in the most integrated, independent, and least intrusive or restrictive environment.
c. Model effective coping techniques and self-help strategies.
5. The CPSs will maintain a working knowledge of current trends and
developments in the mental health field by reading books, journals and other relevant material.
a. Continue to develop and share recovery-oriented material with other CPSs at the continuing education assemblies and on the CPS electronic bulletin board.
b. Attend continuing education sessions when offered by the CPS Project.
c. Attend relevant seminars, meetings, and in-service trainings whenever offered.
6. The CPSs will serve as a recovery agent by:
a. Providing and advocating for effective recovery based services.
b. Assist consumers in obtaining services that suit that individual's recovery needs.
c. Inform consumers about community and natural supports and how to utilize
these in the recovery process.
d. Assist consumers in developing empowerment skill through self-advocacy and the use of Human Experience Language to combat stigma.
Peer
Services: Peers Helping Peers
As defined by RCSP grant projects, peer-to-peer services are services
supporting recovery that are designed and delivered by peers—people
who have shared the experiences of addiction and recovery—rather
than by professionals.
Professionals are good allies, and successful peer initiatives network
and build strong and mutually supportive linkages with formal systems
and with professionals in their communities. However, peer services
are largely designed and delivered by individuals and families in
recovery to meet the needs of others like they once were. The services
are defined in response to needs identified by the recovery community.
While supportive of treatment, peer-to-peer recovery support services
are not treatment in the commonly understood clinical sense of the
term. Still, they extend and enhance the treatment continuum in at
least two ways:
- Peer-to-peer services help prevent relapse and promote
long-term recovery, thereby reducing strain on the overburdened
treatment
system.
- When individuals do relapse, peer-to-peer services can
help minimize the negative effects through early intervention and
timely referral
back to treatment.
The recovery community has defined recovery as continuing abstinence
from alcohol and drugs and a full re-engagement with the community
based on resilience, health, and hope. Therefore, peer recovery support
services focus less on illness (pathology) and more on wellness.
They aim to maximize the opportunities to create a lifetime of recovery
and wellness for one’s self, family, neighbors, and community.
Peer-to-peer recovery support can include:
- Assistance in housing, educational, and employment opportunities
- Building constructive family and other personal relationships
- Stress management assistance
- Alcohol- and drug-free social and recreational activities
- Recovery coaching or mentoring to help manage the process
of obtaining services from multiple systems, including primary
and mental health
care, child welfare, and criminal justice systems.
Recovery support can be targeted to respond to specific cultural
or gender-specific needs. It is provided in culturally appropriate
and welcoming self-help environments.
http://rcsp.samhsa.gov/concepts/peertopeer.htm
