Peer Support Services

Peer Support services provide individuals with opportunities to support, mentor and assist consumers with a mental illness to achieve community inclusion, participation, independence, recovery, resiliency and/or productivity.  Peer are individuals who have a unique background and skill level from their experience in utilizing services and supports to achieve their personal goals of community membership, independence and productivity. Individuals receiving peer support services must participate in choosing the peer who will be providing the service.  Services may be provided on an individual basis or in a group format and must be tied into the consumers identified outcome in their Person Centered Plan.

Peer Support Services include an array of services that include vocational assistance to support consumers seeking education, training and/or employment activities; housing assistance to find and maintain independent living, move to less restrictive living situations, and applying for housing vouchers; person centered planning; self determination; sharing recovery stories, accessing entitlements, developing wellness plans, developing advance directives, pursing alternatives to guardianship, supporting consumers in crisis; and developing, implementing and providing ongoing guidance for advocacy and support groups.

The Peer Support Program is intended to serve adult consumers of SCCMHA who have a diagnosis of a serious mental illness or a co-occurring disorder of a mental Illness and a substance use disorder who are receiving Supports Coordination or Case Management, Assertive Community Treatment or Outpatient Services. 

Consumer-provided services arose from a number of problems with traditional mental health services including:

• Consumers falling through the cracks,
• Lack of opportunity for consumers to develop competencies, autonomy, involvement and relatedness with others,
• Need for supports for rehabilitation, and
• Professional lack of knowledge, theory and techniques that lead to Recovery.

Peer Supports evolved from the consumerism movement that includes self-help, mutual support and consumers as providers.  At the same time, there has been a shift from the medical model to the recovery model in the delivery of mental health services, a move that parallels the system transformations efforts are associated with integrating mental health, substance abuse and physical health care interventions, person-centered planning, and the emphasis on self determination as basic value in service delivery.  Many direct services now provided by professional staff, can be more effectively provided by peers.

Peer Supports, one of a number of peer delivered services, benefit consumers who receive the service, consumers who provide the services, and the agency.  For consumers who receive peer support services, benefits include:

• Increased social supports and nurturance,
• Increased opportunities for decision making, choice and increased independence,
• Increased sense of hope,
• Increased sense of empowerment, and
• Opportunities for development of a network based on friendships.