The Gifts Peer Providers Bring
By Larry Fricks, Deputy Director, CIHS
In the United States, peer support traces back to as early as 1772 when Native Americans joined in mutual support groups to self-manage recovery from alcohol abuse problems.
Peer support happens whenever people who have similar lived experiences with mental illness and/or addiction share their hope, strengths, and experiences to promote recovery and resiliency. Peer support can be done anytime and anywhere when two or more peers share a mutual supportive relationship. It can be provided in clinical settings and the community, in groups and one-to-one, and on treatment teams that include non-peers. In primary care, peer support links people living with chronic conditions, such as diabetes, in sharing knowledge and experiences.
In an integrated primary and behavioral health system, peer support services focus on the shift from stabilization and maintenance to recovery and resiliency, from what’s wrong to what’s strong, from mental illness and addiction to whole health, and from social segregation to social inclusion.
A peer provider (e.g., certified peer specialist, peer support specialist, recovery coach) is a person who uses his or her lived experience of recovery from mental illness and/or addiction, plus skills learned in formal training, to deliver services in behavioral health settings to promote mind-body recovery and resiliency.
Peer providers are often hired because of their recovery experience, rather than their clinical education. This puts peer providers in the unique position of being service providers who have lived experience in successfully addressing the impact of the illness rather than just the symptoms of the illness.
The perspective and unique abilities of peer support providers strengthen the integrated care team in many ways. There are six key gifts peer providers bring to the integrated care team:
The Gift of Insight. Internalized shame shatters a person’s sense of self-worth. For many, the impact on their daily lives and interactions can be harder to overcome than the symptoms of their illness. Peer providers have insight on how internalized shame results from discrimination, social exclusion, poverty, homelessness, and hopelessness.
The Gift of “Been There, Done That.” Peer providers eliminate the “you do not know what it’s like” excuse. Peer providers can make others living with mental illnesses or addictions feel comfort in the fact that they are not alone; they have a person on their side that has been through similar experiences and has gotten through them.
The Gift of Compassion. Because of their lived experience, peer support providers understand and are inherently grateful for the very services they are now providing to others. This gratitude often manifests itself in deep compassion for their peers.
The Gift of Hope. Working with someone who has moved from hopelessness to hope is extremely empowering. People can often see themselves in the peer providers, which gives them hope over their whole health.
The Gift of Trust. Peer providers are in a unique position to develop a relationship of trust. Peers are often more willing to share their real issues, concerns, hopes, and dreams with a peer provider rather than non-peer, clinical staff.
The Gift of Whole- Health Self-Management. Peer providers have developed the gift of self-managing their lives holistically, including both mind and body. This experience with self-managing their whole health is one of the most powerful gifts peer providers can give. They have learned to recognize triggers and early warning signs, counteract the negative impact of stress, and create plans for taking care of themselves.
Peer providers are an essential element to a strong, comprehensive integrated care team.
