Peer Support Specialist I/II - Behavioral Health & Recovery Services (Adult Programs) (Open & Promo)

About the role

San Mateo County Health’s Behavioral Health and Recovery Services is seeking compassionate, recovery-oriented Peer Support Specialists to support adults navigating mental health and/or substance use recovery.

Responsibilities

• Provide peer-based recovery support, encouragement, and mentorship using lived experience
• Build supportive relationships with clients and promote hope, self-advocacy, and wellness
• Aid clients in accessing behavioral health, substance use, medical, housing, benefits, vocational, educational, and community resources
• Support individuals in developing independent living, recovery, and wellness skills
• Absorb clients with daily activities, appointments, applications, forms, and service navigation
• Facilitate or co-facilitate support groups and recovery-focused activities
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams, hospitals, clinics, community providers, and other partners
• Participate in case conferences, treatment planning, and team meetings
• Aid with documentation, data tracking, and reporting activities
• Support clients experiencing social isolation, housing instability, hospitalization, or other complex barriers to care

Requirements

• Experience or knowledge related to substance use disorders, recovery services, and community-based behavioral health resources is highly desirable
• The ideal candidate will possess lived experience as a consumer of mental health services and be able to draw upon their recovery journey, growth, and learned experiences to support others in their recovery
• Understand recovery-oriented and trauma-informed approaches to care
• Build trust and effectively engage individuals from diverse communities and backgrounds
• Connect clients to behavioral health, housing, medical, and community resources
• Work effectively both independently and collaboratively within multidisciplinary teams
• Adapt to a variety of program settings, including clinic-based, field-based, and community-based work
• Demonstrate strong communication, organization, and problem-solving skills
• Experience supporting individuals experiencing complex behavioral health and social service needs
• Experience working with adults and older adults, co-occurring disorders, experience in field-based outreach, working with adults experiencing housing instability, and/or working in a multidisciplinary behavioral health setting is highly desirable depending on assignment
• Bilingual skills are highly desirable for some assignments

Qualifications

• Peer Support Specialist I: Proof of completion of Peer Support Specialist training AND within eighteen (18) months from date of hire, obtain Certification as a Medi-Cal Peer Support Specialist.
• Peer Support Specialist II: Certification as a Medi-Cal Peer Support Specialist issued by the California Mental Health Services Authority (CMHSA).

Skills

• Address the client population’s unique needs in a culturally sensitive manner
• Relate and communicate effectively with the community served
• Establish, maintain, and foster positive and effective relationships with clients, their families and/or caregivers and others contacted in the course of work
• Learn and understand the organization and operation of the assigned department and program
• Respond to and effectively prioritize multiple phone calls and requests for service
• File materials alphabetically, chronologically, and numerically
• Use English effectively to communicate in person, over the telephone, and in writing
• Interpret and apply administrative and departmental policies and procedures; interpret agency programs and policies to members of the community served
• Organize, maintain, and update office database and records systems
• Organize own work, set priorities, and meet critical time deadlines
• Enter and retrieve data from a computer with sufficient speed and accuracy to perform assigned work
• Write clear and comprehensive reports
• Maintain confidentiality
• Stand and walk for extended periods of time and lift and carry equipment and supplies used in the course of the work
• Complete 20 hours of continuing education every two years to maintain certification