RS Peer Support Specialist

Principal Duties and Responsibilities

• Provide peer counseling and support, drawing on common experiences as a peer, to validate clients; experiences and to provide guidance and encouragement to clients to take responsibility and actively participate in their own recovery.
• Serve as a mentor to clients to promote hope and empowerment.
• Act as an interpreter to help non-recovery services consumer team members better understand and empathize with each client’s unique and subjective experience and perceptions.
• Provide expertise and consultation from a recovering consumer’s perspective to the entire team concerning clients’ experiences on symptoms of substance use disorder, the effects and side-effects of medications, clients’ responses to and opinions of treatment, and clients’ experiences of recovery.
• Collaborate with the team to promote a team culture in which each client’s point of view, experiences, and preferences are recognized, understood, and respected, and in which client self-determination and decision‑making in treatment planning are maximized and supported.
• Helps clients identify, understand, and combat stigma and discrimination associated with substance use disorder and develop strategies to reduce self‑stigma.
• Help other team members identify and understand culture‑wide stigma and discrimination against people with substance use disorder and develop strategies to eliminate stigma within the team.
• Collaborate with the team to ensure the protection of clients’ rights in order to help clients to improve their knowledge of client rights and grievance or compliant procedures.
• Collaborate with the team to help clients learn about pertinent grievance procedures and support clients with filing, mediating, and resolving complaints.
• Increase awareness of and support client participation in consumer self‑help programs and consumer advocacy organizations that promote recovery.
• Serve as the liaison between the team and consumer‑run programs such as self‑help groups and drop‑in centers.
• Shared duties in the provision of treatment and recovery services.

• Assist in the provision of ongoing assessment of clients’ substance use symptoms and clients’ response to treatment. Suggest appropriate changes in treatment plans to ensure that immediate and appropriate interventions are provided in response to changes in clients’ mental status or behavior in which put clients at risk (e.g., suicidality)
• Assist in the provision of direct clinical services to clients on an individual, group, and family basis in the office and in community settings to teach symptom‑management techniques and promote personal growth and development by assisting clients to cope with internal and external stresses.
• Assist in the provision of individual and group treatment in the office and in community settings in a stage based treatment model that is non‑confrontational, considers interactions of substance use disorder, and has client‑determined goals.
• Shared duties in the provision of rehabilitation services.

• Perform mentoring, problem solving, encouragement and support on and off the job site.
• Provide work‑related supportive services, such as assistance securing necessary clothing and grooming supplies, wake‑up calls transportation.

• Provide ongoing assessment, problem solving, side‑by‑side services, skill teaching, support (prompts assignments, encouragement), and environmental adaptations to assist clients with activities of daily living.
• Assist clients to find and maintain a safe and affordable place to live, apartment hunting, finding a roommate, landlord negotiations, cleaning, furnishings, and decorating, and procuring necessities (telephone, furniture, utility hook‑up).
• Assist and support clients to organize and perform household activities, include house cleaning and laundry.
• Assist and support clients with personal hygiene and grooming tasks.
• Provide nutrition education and assistance with meal planning, grocery shopping and food preparation.
• Ensure that clients have adequate financial support (help to gain employment and…