October 17, 2019
This blog was originally
published on October 16, 2019, by the National Rehabilitation Information
Center (NARIC).
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.
Being a peer provider can
be both rewarding and challenging. It can be rewarding to see your peers learn,
grow, and do well in the program. It can be challenging to maintain a
professional relationship and know when you are crossing the boundary between
counselor and friend. Successful peer provider programs
include training on managing boundaries and the stress of busy schedules and
supervisors who are trained on the role of peer providers and how to support
them.
Peer support is an
important part of many of the programs of the Administration for Community
Living (ACL). For example, peer counseling and peer support are core services of Centers for Independent Living in
the US. The National Resource Center for Self-Advocacy enhances
leadership skills for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities
through fellowships to individuals, along with training and technical
assistance to a variety of organizations. The State Councils on Developmental Disabilities (or
DD Councils) also help with self-empowerment and self-advocacy through peer
engagement. The National Limb Loss Resource Center and National Paralysis Resource Center both
run active peer support programs for people with those types of disabilities.
Several NIDILRR-funded
projects are currently conducting research and development in peer-provided
services. These include:
INROADS: Intersecting Research on Opioid Misuse,
Addiction, and Disability Services, which includes an examination of
peer support services for people with disabilities who are also living with
opioid use disorders.
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 Research and Training Center for Pathways to Positive Futures:
Building Self-Determination and Community Living and Participation includes AMP+: Developing the Young Adult Peer Support Workforce.
AMP+ is a field test of a workforce intervention that is focused on training
and coaching peer support providers who work with emerging adults with serious
mental health conditions, and working with supervisors and administrators in
agencies that employ peer support providers to ensure that the agencies are
prepared to supervise and support them. This project is also supported by the
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
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.
The Rehabilitation Research and
Training Center on Improving Employment Outcomes for Individuals with
Psychiatric Disabilities includes a randomized clinical trial
to evaluate the efficacy of the peer-run Vocational Empowerment Photovoice
(VEP) program and a training program called Advanced Practitioner and Peer
Specialist Skills (APPS): Building Partnerships for Employment. This project is
also supported by SAMHSA.
The Learning & Working During the
Transition to Adulthood Rehabilitation Research & Training Center has
developed a Toolkit for employers of youth and
young adult peer recovery workers and a research project
on Peer Academic Coaching Support for
College Students. This project is also supported by SAMHSA.
Parents Empowering Parents: National Research Center for
Parents with Disabilities and Their Families is developing,
adapting, testing, and scaling-up interventions that include a parent peer
specialist model for parents with psychiatric disabilities and a virtual peer
support intervention for Deaf parents.
The Rehabilitation
Research and Training Center on Health and Self-Directed Careincludes
a project to develop a Model to Promote Health and
Recovery after Medical Hospitalizations: Community Health Workers Teamed with
Peer Specialists. This center also offers a toolkit which reviews the many ways that peer support
specialists improve supported employment programs and describes
how peer specialists are working to deliver and support Individual Placement
and Support (IPS) services. This project is also supported by SAMHSA.
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?
·
Find your local Center for Independent Living or
your State Council on Developmental Disabilities.
·
Leadership training and self-advocacy resources from the Self-Advocacy Resource and Technical Assistance Center.
·
About peer providers from
SAMHSA’s HRSA Center for Integrated Health Solutions and Who Are Peer Workers from
SAMHSA’s Bringing Recovery Supports to Scale.
·
The Certified Peer Visitor Program from
the Amputee Coalition and the Peer Mentoring Program from
the Paralysis Resource Center.
·
The National Alliance for Mental
Illness (NAMI) Peer-to-Peer is a free, eight-session
educational program for adults with mental health conditions who are looking to
better understand themselves and their recovery.
·
How to Become a Peer Support
Specialist from Mental Health America.
·
The HealthMessages Program: Peer to Peer is
an evidence-informed program that includes a HealthMessages Program Kit and a
90-minute Webinar training for Healthy Lifestyle Coaches (HLCs) (people with
intellectual and developmental disabilities) and their Mentors.
·
Certification programs may be available through your local department
of mental health or behavioral health, or through the nearest community
college.
Are you interested in more
research on peer providers? Dive into the REHABDATA database with this search
for peer support, providers,
counselors, and coaches.
https://acl.gov/news-and-events/announcements/peer-providers-how-your-experience-makes-you-right-job
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