Recovery is an individual choice and process and can be helped along with Peer and Professional support.
Peer support is a system of giving and receiving help founded on key principles of respect, shared responsibility, and mutual agreement of what is helpful. Peer support is not based on psychiatric models and diagnostic criteria. It is about understanding another’s situation empathically through the shared experience of emotional and psychological pain. When people find affiliation with others whom they feel are “like” them, they feel a connection. This connection, or affiliation, is a deep, holistic understanding based on mutual experience where people are able to “be” with each other without the constraints of traditional (expert/patient) relationships. Further, as trust in the relationship builds, both people are able to respectfully challenge each other when they find themselves re-enacting old roles. This allows members of the peer community to try out new behaviors with one another and move beyond previously held self-concepts built on disability, diagnosis, and trauma worldview.
Background of Peer Support Services in Pennsylvania
- In 2003, the Pennsylvania Office of Mental Health Substance Abuse Services (OMHSAS) committed to transforming the mental health system to include the development of services that facilitate and support recovery. Peer Specialist Services have been defined in Pennsylvania as one of these services.
- In 2004, OMHSAS received a 3-year Mental Health Systems Transformation Grant award from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The grant provided for the development and refinement of a training curriculum and peer certification process known as the PA Peer Specialist Initiative (PSI).
- On February 22, 2007, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) approved Pennsylvania’s Medicaid State Plan Amendment to include Peer Support Services as a component of rehabilitative services. This was accomplished through a broad partnership of individuals and organizations.
- In 2008, OMHSAS partnered with The University pf Pennsylvania to develop a curriculum and training plan for Certified Peer Specialists to specialize in working with older adults.
- Other plans are in process for other peer specializations such as transitional age youth and forensics and further career development for peers.