Emergency Service Program Recovery &
Peer Specialist Resources
Welcome to the resource page supporting your efforts
to bring the message of mental health recovery
to people who use Emergency Service Programs
Watch here for training events upcoming in the fall and spring
for Emergency Service Program staff and for Peer Specialists
The content below was provided as a manual to each
Emergency Service Program in August 2010.
Most documents may be downloaded and shared.
Recovery & Peer Specialist Integration Reference Guide
for Emergency Service Programs
The Transformation Center, in its first trainings for Emergency Service Providers, sponsored by the Massachusetts Behavioral Health Partnership and held during April 2010, developed a number of resources specific to emergency services. In addition, we have gathered here references about peers helping peers and other recovery-oriented best practices in the behavioral health field. We believe that these resources are relevant and transferable to Emergency Service Program (ESP) settings, and we hope that you will find these references helpful in your practice.
Link library
1. Emerging Services by Peers in ESP, Lyn Legere
2. CPS Practice in ESPs, presentation by Rachel Sommer-Hayes
3. CPS Role in ESPs, presentation by Lyn Legere
4. Best Practices in Certified Peer Specialist Supervision and Employment, handout from Pat Nemec
5. Matching the Expertise and Role of Certified Peer Specialists with the Work of Emergency Service Programs, handout from Lyn Legere
Massachusetts Practices
6. Peer Specialist Competencies is a document from the Massachusetts Certified Peer Specialist (CPS) Oversight Committee. This is part of a project that has synthesized all the training competencies for CPSs throughout the country to clearly articulate the role of the CPS.
7. Massachusetts CPS Code of Ethics. This Code of Ethics is in use by all Massachusetts peer specialists certified here.
8. Session List. This is a list of modules taught in the Massachusetts CPS course and demonstrates the scope of training received by peer specialists in the state.
9. Peers as Valued Workers: A Massachusetts Roadmap for Successfully Integrating Certified Peer Specialists and Peer Support Workers into the Public Mental Health System, The Massachusetts Transformation Committee (TRANSCOM), 2008.
This roadmap was created collaboratively by many key stakeholders in Massachusetts to offer guidance, direction, and policy recommendations to the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health when planning for peer roles was underway throughout the state. Key areas are highlighted where action is needed to fulfill the goals of creating and sustaining meaningful peer roles throughout the state mental health system.
10. Developing a Mental Health Peer Specialist Workforce in Massachusetts, Center for Health Policy and Research, University of Massachusetts Medical Center, 2006. This position paper outlines the evidence base for peer support, the status of peer support implementation in Massachusetts in 2006, the challenges in introducing the role of peer specialist in Massachusetts, and potential solutions to those challenges.
11. Defining Peer Support, Shery Mead, March 2003. This foundational work outlines the core practices and values of peer work, regardless
of role.
12. Four Critical Elements for Peer Specialist Integration in Programs, The Transformation Center, 2009. This one-page document outlines four primary elements needed for successful integration of peers into programs, including convening peer specialists, strong leadership, convening program directors, and broader systems’ interest and support.
13. Peer Specialist: Function and Purpose on Provider Teams. This paper is adapted from the experience of PACT team recovery specialists, who were among the first organized peer workers in the state. The paper outlines the role of the peer and the role of the person using services in a mutual peer relationship.
14. Culture of Respect, the Massachusetts Transformation Committee (TRANSCOM). This policy position paper outlines the necessity for creating work cultures in the mental health system where disclosure of lived experience is valued and encouraged. It outlines the unintended negative messages conveyed in systems that discourage disclosure and discusses the relationship between valuing disclosure and integrating peers into the workforce.
Practices, Other States
15. Peer Support Specialists Administrative Checklist, Medical College of Georgia. This simplified checklist addresses the critical tasks relevant to integrating peer specialists in the categories of leadership, culture change, recruitment, advance preparation, hiring and follow through. These are adapted from the seminal works of Chinman and Gates (see below) and Mabe.
16. Mental Health Consumer Providers: A Guide for Clinical Staff. Chinman M, Hamilton A, Butler B, Knight E, Murray S & Young A. (2008). This seminal work addresses systems barriers and solutions and outlines the steps needed to integrate peers successfully into the workforce.
17. Developing strategies to integrate peer providers into the staff of mental health agencies. Gates LB & Akabas SH. (2007). Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 34:293-306. This is also a seminal work that outlines the needs of peers and systems to create meaningful work environments.
18. Forum on Integrating Peer Services in Community and Inpatient Settings in Vermont’s Mental Health System of Care, Bluebird & Dixon, 2008. Vermont’s experience is described and a variety of peer specialist job descriptions and tools to facilitate interviewing and hiring peer specialists are included.
19. Early Experiences of Employing Consumer-Providers in the VA, Chinman, Lucksted, Gresen, Davis, Losonczy, Sussner & Martone, 2008, Psychiatric Services, 59(11). This article provides an overview of the process, benefits, and barriers of establishing peer roles within the Veterans Administration.
International Experience
20. Consumer/Survivor Initiatives: Impact, Outcomes & Effectiveness. This overview describes a process for integrating peers in a number of different roles in Ontario, with descriptions and outcomes.
21. Evaluation of the Delivering for Mental Health Peer Supporter Worker Pilot Scheme, , Brief Report, 2009. This report provides an in-depth evaluation of the implementation of peer worker roles in a number of settings in Scotland. It highlights the factors that led to successful integration and those that created barriers. The executive summary and the full report are attached.
Recovery Practice (General)
22. Self-Assessment for Wellness and Recovery: Core Staff Competencies, Swarbrick & Backs, 2007. This checklist allows a person or organization to rate levels of proficiency in key areas of recovery practice, including “person-oriented attitudes, values, knowledge and behavior,” engagement of family/friends in paid and unpaid roles, knowledge of co-occurring illnesses, strengths-based recovery planning, support strategies, legal issues and civil rights, systems collaboration, ethics and professional behavior, cultural competence, and methods of evaluation. (See also the Self-Assessment & Growth Plan, below.)
23. Self-Assessment & Growth Plan, Swarbrick & Backs, 2007. This plan allows individuals and agencies to brainstorm concrete steps for strengthening performance based on areas identified in the Self-Assessment for Wellness & Recovery tool. The tool can be used to guide both the professional development of individuals as well as training within agencies, and other related topics.
24. Recovery and Strengths-Based Practice, Scottish Recovery Network. This briefing article provides simple, concrete ways to change everyday practice to move away from a deficit based approach and toward a recovery-oriented approach.
25. Medication Collaboration Strategies, Mark Ragins, M.D. Written by a psychiatrist, this one-page article outlines 12 practices that serve to create a recovery environment between a psychiatrist and a person using services, particularly concerning medication.
26. Knowing a Recovery Culture When You See One: A Guide for Recovery-Oriented Leaders, Mark Ragins, M.D. This article provides straightforward indicators of recovery environments using four primary domains: hope, authority, healing, and community integration.
27. Don't Let Paperwork be a Barrier, Lori Ashcraft & William Anthony, Behavioral Health, June 2008. This paper looks at how to support the ongoing development of recovery practice despite the challenges of paperwork, regulations, etc.
Links, Bibliographies
28. Recovery Learning Community Contacts, here is the contact information for the six Recovery Learning Communities in Massachusetts.
29. Research on How and Why Peer Support Works, Depression and Bipolar Support Association (www.peersupport.org). This is a compilation of research articles about peer support (as of 2007).
30. Person-Centered Planning Handouts & Resources, Transformation Center/MBHP 2009 Recovery Forums. This is a bibliography of documents available on the Transformation-Center website, as well as links to other materials.
31. Putting Recovery Skills into Practice, Swarbrick. In this bibliography, Peggy Swarbrick compiles literature and articles on recovery-oriented practices and values.
32. Recovery Education Materials, Boston University (2003). This brochure provides an overview of Pathways to Recovery by P. Ridgeway; Wellness Recovery Action Plans by Mary Ellen Copeland; and the Recovery Workbook, I and II by the BU Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation. Since this publication, BU has also added a Spanish version of the Recovery Workbook materials.