Behavioral health peers offer unique opportunities for healing and recovery. Peers know the value of talking about their challenges and learning from other people. They can also be a source of hope and inspiration to people who are struggling to find hope.
Share your lived experience with others like you
A behavioral health peer is someone who has experienced challenges maintaining their mental health and/or are in recovery from substance use disorder. Their “lived experience” may also include a history of accessing services in the mental health system.
Peer support is the process of people with similar lived experience sharing and learning from each other. Often, they practice healthy relationship-building skills while giving and receiving support. Peer support can increase a person’s ability to self-manage their behavioral health condition(s) as well as new life experiences as they move towards their life goals.
The peer support model
MaineHealth Behavioral Health peer support specialists practice Intentional Peer Support through one-on-one meetings with peers, facilitation of peer support groups, education and outreach. Peer support specialists also help MaineHealth Behavioral Health patients connect to wellness/recovery/community support opportunities when appropriate.
More about peer support
Peer support is different from traditional clinical approaches. By focusing on “what happened to you", rather than “what’s wrong with you", we learn and talk about experiences in new ways. Peer support is not about providing a service to one person; it is about each person being responsible for their own challenges and the action needed to address them.
Peer support certification includes eight days of core training plus a year of continuing education and skill building groups. Maintaining certification requires:
- Complete eight (or more) hours of continuing education annually
- Participate in 12 hours of skill-building groups annually
- A biannual review of commitment to core concepts
Certification is offered through the Department of Health & Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services (SAMHSA). The Certified Intentional Peer Support program is free, including mileage or ride sharing for peers without their own transportation.
For more information, please visit the SAMHSA peer support page.
Peer support specialists are people who have struggled with maintaining their mental health, recovering from substance use disorder, or both. They have demonstrated resiliency and perseverance in their own wellness or recovery journey and are willing to identify with, and talk about, that experience.
A peer support specialist is is effective in communicating about their lived experience in a way that fosters a healthy relationship. The relationship is centered on each person exploring wellness, discussing challenges and opening up to new ways of thinking.
MaineHealth Behavioral Health peer support specialists are required to maintain a certification in Intentional Peer Support.
Peer support specialists work with people to:
- Create an authentic secure space to discuss hard topics and thoughts so each person can learn about themselves without fear of negative or coercive responses
- Talk openly about their overall wellness and/or recovery experience
- Create a deep understanding of a person’s life experiences and how that influences their present perspective
- Identify personal strengths that can help each person reach and maintain the life they want
- Develop positive strategies that will help each person to better support their mental health
- Build and practice healthy relationship skills, so each person can create stronger natural support networks that allow them to participate fully in a happy life, work and community
- Increase our understanding of mental health and wellness including exploring substance use when relevant
- Creating plans and strategies for times of intense challenges
- Build confidence and self-advocacy skills
Peer support relationships are healthy, wellness-focused connections between two (or more) people who experience challenges maintaining mental health and/or recovery from substance use disorder. Peers engage in a mutual process of giving and receiving non-clinical, human-to-human support that allows them to explore their life experiences in different ways.
Having insightful, supportive relationships with someone who has “been there” is what many in recovery value most about peer support relationships. Peer relationships are based on the belief that everyone matters and has something valuable to offer the world.
Principles of Intentional Peer Support
- Focusing on hope and possibilities instead of fear. Trying new things is about hope for a better future, not the fear of consequences or negative responses.
- Focusing on the relationship rather than the individual. Both people in the relationship deserve to have their needs and wants heard, respected and discussed.
- Learning together instead of helping. We seek to learn from each other, with each other, instead of only fixing the other person’s problems. We are both empowered to take the actions needed for our own benefit.
It’s not easy!
Peer support relationships are often challenging. The relationship builds a confidential, authentic and trusting connection where both people can be challenged on their assumptions and ideas. It requires both people to understand the intent of, and responsibility to, the relationship.
Each person can become more resilient in their own lives through exploring ideas and trying new actions. As each person practices creating healthy relationships, they are better able to build a supportive network in their own community with the skills and knowledge they have gained.
