Adult Peer Support Specialist

Principal Duties and Responsibilities

Provide peer counseling and support, drawing on common experiences as a peer, to validate consumers; experiences and to provide guidance and encouragement to consumers to take responsibility and actively participate in their own recovery.

Serve as a mentor to consumers to promote hope and empowerment.

Act as an interpreter to help non‑mental health consumer team members better understand and empathize with each consumer’s unique and subjective experience and perceptions.

Provide expertise and consultation from a recovering consumer’s perspective to the entire team concerning consumers’ experiences on symptoms of mental illness, the effects and side‑effects of medications, consumers’ responses to and opinions of treatment, and consumers’ experiences of recovery.

Collaborate with the team to promote a team culture in which each consumer’s point of view, experiences, and preferences are recognized, understood, and respected, and in which consumer self‑determination and decision‑making in treatment planning are maximized and supported.

Helps consumers identify, understand, and combat stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness and develop strategies to reduce self‑stigma.

Help other team members identify and understand culture‑wide stigma and discrimination against people with mental illness and develop strategies to eliminate stigma within the team.

Collaborate with the team to ensure the protection of consumers’ rights in order to help consumers to improve their knowledge of consumer rights and grievance or compliant procedures.

Collaborate with the team to help consumers learn about pertinent grievance procedures and support consumers with filing, mediating, and resolving complaints.

Increase awareness of and support consumer 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.

Provide an average of 50% direct billable time per month as established by the Agency.

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations will be made to enable the individual with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Physically able to reach, push, pull, stoop, bend, stand, walk and lift up to 20 pounds.
• Possess a valid Driver’s License and maintain a safe driving record if required for job performance.

Assist in the provision of ongoing assessment of consumers’ mental illness symptoms and consumers’ response to treatment. Suggest appropriate changes in treatment plans to ensure that immediate and appropriate interventions are provided in response to changes in consumers’ mental status or behavior in which put consumers at risk (e.g., suicidality).

Assist in the provision of direct clinical services to consumers 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 consumers 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 mental illness and substance use disorder, and has consumer‑determined goals.

Shared duties with clinical and support staff 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…