Consumers
have to recover. They and their ‘families’ are the people who
have to navigate the journey of recovery which is a deeply personal
and nuanced process that can be significantly enhanced by the
knowledge and experience of their peers. Peer Support is not Case
Management. If circumstances warrant peers may provide a case
management service. Peers play significant roles in helping consumers
recover: accessing emergency services, transitioning successfully
from the hospital to living in community, embracing recovery through
the use of mental health recovery models developed and facilitated
for and by their peers. Peer Support is important throughout the
stages of recovery and the continuum of care and should be integrated
with treatment, serving to help consumers overcome barriers to
successfully using treatment and services, and engaging in recovery.
Peers work hand-in- hand with police, emergency services, intensive
treatment teams, med-somatic and clinical providers, rehabilitation
services, and housing and benefit providers. They work in settings
including Recovery Centers, ERs, hospitals, jails, school systems,
employers, neighborhoods and communities. We facilitate the
transition from everything being about ‘my illness and me’ to me
thriving in the context of family and community.
Practically
we increase housing stability and improve the capacity of consumers
to achieve meaningful lives despite the continued presence of their
illness. We help them navigate the mental health system protecting
their right to maintain the fine balance between keeping the symptoms
that enhance their recovery, their creativity and productiveness, and
managing their illness so that it does not interfere with their
capacity to achieve.
We
are often times the only family a consumer has, and the eyes and ears
of the system during the time the consumer is not in treatment. We
live with these illnesses. We bring important knowledge and
observations in an integrated approach of helping consumers recover.
The
long term community impact of having peer support available is that
consumers have housing stability, are increasingly able to be more
self-sufficient and live more interdependently in community, are
healthier while accessing healthcare outside of emergency rooms, have
greater success in accessing integrated treatment for mental illness
and substance abuse, increase the likelihood of recovery by becoming
part of a group and attending recovery meetings, identifying with
people who have more recovery than themselves and who they can go to
for advice and support throughout their journey of recovery. They
have access to services and supports that meet the client where the
client is at in whatever stage of change they are.
Research
clearly shows that when consumers have access to treatment and
recovery services they do better than when they only receive
treatment.
In
the end, the community is safer, saves money and consumers are giving
back to their community.
