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The Vital Importance of Peer Support Specialists
Life-saving people who change lives
In the last twenty years, a new profession has taken root, one that can ease some of the tremendous workloads of mental health professionals. I’m talking about peer support specialists and the wonderful work they are doing in many settings around the United States.
What are peer support specialists? What do they do? What are the credentials and training they must have? This article will delve into answering these questions and much more.
What are Peer Support Specialists?
There have long been people willing to give up parts of their lives to help those who are struggling. They spend inordinate amounts of time making sure that others do not feel alone or abandoned. Until recently, these positions were unpaid, although the workload was just as heavy as any other profession.
Now, in 2021, all but five states have established peer support specialist training programs that offer a certificate of completion and two of the five that do not have it are in the process of offering one.
Peer support specialists are people with lived experience with a mental health condition, such as substance use or depression, who have knowledge that cannot be taught in the…
