Living, learning, and working with a disability can be
challenging. Sometimes, the best person to understand what you’re going
through might be someone who’s also been there. A peer provider is someone who draws on
their own lived experience of disability, along with training and
professional support, to provide services like counseling and coaching to
people with the same type of disability. In honor of National
Disability Employment Awareness Month (#NDEAM) in October, we're
highlighting how peer provider programs support people with disabilities
and employment.
According to recent studies, peer providers are a rapidly-growing part of the
workforce supporting people with disabilities and chronic conditions.
Peer providers can be found in many different settings such as behavioral
health and substance use disorder programs, wellness and health promotion
programs, and school and university programs supporting students with
disabilities. In some settings, peers provide support informally or on a
volunteer basis, in other settings they may have a formal, paid position
within an organization. The position may be called a peer support
specialist, a recovery or wellness coach, a job coach, or similar.
Each program or service agency will have different
requirements and qualifications for peer providers, but those
qualifications could include: a certain level of education like a high
school degree/GED or some college; self-identifying as a person with a
disability, either generally or with a specific condition; and a history of
work or volunteer experience. Some programs may also require certification
from a recognized source, like a training program or an accrediting
organization. Other programs may require new peer providers to attend a
specific training program which results in certification.
Several NIDILRR-funded projects are currently conducting
research and development in peer-provided services. These include:
The CrossingPoints High Tide project
develops, tests, and refines a model of off-campus integrated community
living and participation for students with intellectual disabilities (ID)
attending the CrossingPoints postsecondary program at The University
Alabama. This model includes peer mentors and college students with ID
living and participating in an off-campus community setting.
The Northeast Ohio Regional Spinal Cord Injury Model
System includes a peer navigator program which matches a
peer navigator, a former patient who has successfully returned to an active
and productive life after injury, to a newly injured patient while that
patient is in the acute hospital and followed for 1-year
post-rehabilitation discharge.
This center previously conducted a study of Weight Management
and Wellness for People with Psychiatric Disabilities, which used innovative strategies to promote wellness such
as peer support and modeling, exercise videos featuring people with
psychiatric disabilities, real-world weight management strategies that are
inexpensive and easily adopted, and freely available instructor and
participant manuals.
Our Research In Focus series looked at studies of programs
that employ peer providers, counselors, and coaches:
Would you like to
learn more about becoming a peer provider?
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