Peer Support Specialist

Primary Responsibilities

• Build supportive, trusting relationships with clients by drawing upon personal lived experience.
• Provide recovery-oriented peer support, including active listening, mentorship, coaching, and encouragement.
• Afford assistance in identifying strengths, setting goals, developing coping strategies, and practicing and reinforcing new skills through peer support and coaching.
• Support individuals in advocating and accessing resources related to housing, employment, education, healthcare, and the justice system.
• Provide ongoing support and skill teaching as it relates to daily living activities including but not limited to: household tasks; personal hygiene; nutrition education and assistance; personal finance; accessing reliable transportation.
• Act as an interpreter while providing expertise and consultation from a client perspective in areas such as symptoms, effects and side effects of medications, client opinions of treatment, and client experiences of recovery.
• Help clients understand, identify and combat stigma by helping them develop skills in self-advocacy that will help them navigate the legal, social services, and healthcare systems.
• Collaborate with clients on awareness of client rights, including grievance and complaint procedures; support clients with filing, mediating, and resolving complaints.
• Increase client awareness of self-help and consumer advocacy groups, which promote recovery, while acting as the liaison between community resources and such groups.
• Aid in the provision of ongoing assessment and direct services to clients, responding to such challenges as an increase in suicidality, the need for substance abuse education and treatment, and the clients’ readiness for meaningful daily activity, including employment.
• Aid clients in attaining and maintaining safe, affordable housing including apartment hunting, finding a roommate, landlord negotiations, and procuring necessities such as furnishings and telephone and utility hook-up.
• Aid clients in finding and effectively using a primary care physician, dentist, and other medical specialists as required.
• Provide practical help and supports to help clients access other necessary services such as legal services, housing subsidies, and funding alternatives such as SSI, SSDI, and Veteran’s Administration benefits.
• Aid clients to plan and carry out social and leisure time activities.
• Provide oral and written feedback on consumer progress to the treatment team, including the timely completion of documentation.
• Provide practical transportation support by providing reminders of appointments, rides, and assistance using and planning bus/ferry routes

Minimum Qualifications

• Education: High School Diploma or GED
• Experience: Entry level (Lived experience with utilizing mental health and or substance use disorder services and one or more years in recovery).
• Licenses: Agency Affiliated Counselor Registration. Completion of the Washington State Health Care Authority training and approved application for the CPSST (Certified Peer Specialist Trainee) credential within six (6) months of employment.