What is Peer Support?
A Peer Specialist is an individual with their own mental health or co-occurring lived experience. They have found stability in their lives, and their role is to support participants in finding their own life of recovery. As individuals who have achieved and maintained their own personal recovery, they serve as constructive, positive role models who help reduce stigma and focus on empowerment.
Our team of Certified Peer Specialists have competed a 75-hour training, are certified through the Pennsylvania Certification Board, and obtain a minimum of 20 CEUs each year. Many of the Certified Peer Specialists have specialized trainings focused on WRAP (Wellness Recovery Action Plan), forensic support, substance use, youth & young adult, trauma-informed care, and crisis management.
A Peer Specialist supports participants by:
- Sharing their personal experience of recovery
- Practicing mutuality through teaching, learning, and growing together
- Walking the journey of recovery with a person, rather than doing for a person
- Empowering participants to have a voice and recognize they are more than a diagnosis
Are you ready to focus on recovery goals? Peer Support is here to support you in remembering who you are and using your strengths to become all you were meant to be.
What Types of Goal Does Peer Support help With?
- Vocational: Developing a resume, looking for and applying to jobs, talking to employers about job opportunities
- Educational: Researching community educational opportunities, filing out applications, organizing homework, researching grants
- Independent Living Skills: Budgeting, learning how to pay bills, looking up recipes, scheduling appointments
- Wellness: Learning about medications, connecting to physical or behavioral health treatment, practicing copping skills, connecting to mutual support groups
- Community Connection: Building social skills, exploring new hobbies, finding a meaningful role in the community, building healthy social supports
Are You Willing to Meet with a Peer Specialist Regularly?
In order to make meaningful changes and reach personal goals, it is important to meet weekly for at least 1-2 hours to take action. When we don’t meet regularly, our meetings turn into check-ins and become difficult to maintain goal progress.
Eligibility Requirements
- 18 years and older
- Reside in upper Bucks County or upper Montgomery County
- Have a diagnosed mental health or co-occurring mental health and substance use disorder
- Medical Assistance (If you do not have Medical Assistance, connect with the Peer Support program director to see if county funding is available.)
Click here to access the Peer Support Referral Form.
For more information about Peer Support, contact Trish Nye, Program Director, at 267.404.5958 or patricia.nye@sluhn.org.
2022 Impact Report