Principal Duties and Responsibilities

• Provide peer counseling and support, drawing on common experiences as a peer, to validate clients; experiences and to provide guidance and encouragement to clients to take responsibility and actively participate in their own recovery.
• Serve as a mentor to clients to promote hope and empowerment.
• Act as an interpreter to help non-recovery services consumer team members better understand and empathize with each client’s unique and subjective experience and perceptions.
• Provide expertise and consultation from a recovering consumer’s perspective to the entire team concerning clients’ experiences on symptoms of substance use disorder, the effects and side-effects of medications, clients’ responses to and opinions of treatment, and clients’ experiences of recovery.
• Collaborate with the team to promote a team culture in which each client’s point of view, experiences, and preferences are recognized, understood, and respected, and in which client self-determination and decision-making in treatment planning are maximized and supported.
• Helps clients identify, understand, and combat stigma and discrimination associated with substance use disorder and develop strategies to reduce self-stigma.
• Help other team members identify and understand culture-wide stigma and discrimination against people with substance use disorder and develop strategies to eliminate stigma within the team.
• Collaborate with the team to ensure the protection of clients’ rights in order to help clients to improve their knowledge of client rights and grievance or compliant procedures.
• Collaborate with the team to help clients learn about pertinent grievance procedures and support clients with filing, mediating, and resolving complaints.
• Increase awareness of and support client participation in consumer self-help programs and consumer advocacy organizations that promote recovery.
• Serve as the liaison between the team and consumer-run programs such as self-help groups and drop-in centers.
• Shared duties in the provision of treatment and recovery services.

Psychiatric Treatment and Dual Diagnosis Recovery Services

• Assist in the provision of ongoing assessment of clients’ substance use symptoms and clients’ response to treatment. Suggest appropriate changes in treatment plans to ensure that immediate and appropriate interventions are provided in response to changes in clients’ mental status or behavior in which put clients at risk (e.g., suicidality)
• Assist in the provision of direct clinical services to clients on an individual, group, and family basis in the office and in community settings to teach symptom-management techniques and promote personal growth and development by assisting clients to cope with internal and external stresses.
• Assist in the provision of individual and group treatment in the office and in community settings in a stage based treatment model that is non-confrontational, considers interactions of substance use disorder, and has client-determined goals.
• Shared duties in the provision of rehabilitation services.

Structuring Time and Employment

• Perform mentoring, problem solving, encouragement and support on and off the job site.
• Provide work-related supportive services, such as assistance securing necessary clothing and grooming supplies, wake-up calls transportation.

Activities of Daily Living Services

• Provide ongoing assessment, problem solving, side-by-side services, skill teaching, support (prompts assignments, encouragement), and environmental adaptations to assist clients with activities of daily living.
• Assist clients to find and maintain a safe and affordable place to live, apartment hunting, finding a roommate, landlord negotiations, cleaning, furnishings, and decorating, and procuring necessities (telephone, furniture, utility hook-up).
• Assist and support clients to organize and perform household activities, include house cleaning and laundry.
• Assist and support clients with personal hygiene and grooming tasks.
• Provide nutrition education and assistance with meal planning, grocery shopping and food preparation.
• Ensure that clients have adequate financial support (help to gain employment and apply for entitlements).
• Teach money-management skills (budgeting and paying bills) and assist clients in accessing financial services (e.g., professional financial counseling, emergency loan services).
• Help clients to access reliable transportation (obtain a driver’s license, car and car insurance, arrange for cabs, use public transportation, find rides).
• Assist and support clients to have and effectively use a personal primary care physician, dentist, and other medical specialists as required.

Social and Interpersonal Relationships and Leisure Time

• Provide side-by-side support, coaching and encouragement to help clients socialize (going with a client to community activities, including activities offered by consumer-run peer support organizations).
• Assist clients to plan and carry out leisure time activities on evenings, weekends, and holidays.
• Organize and lead individual and group social and recreational activities to help clients structure their time, increase social experiences, and provide opportunities to practice social skills.

Support

Provide practical help and supports, mentoring, advocacy, coordination, side-by-side individualized support, problem solving, direct assistance and supervision to help clients obtain the necessities of daily living including medical and dental health care; legal and advocacy services; financial support such as entitlements (SSI, SSDI, veterans’ benefits); housing subsidies (HUD Section 8); money-management services(e.g., payee services); and transportation.

Qualifications: The peer specialist may have a college degree in a human services field, high school diploma, or at least two years of paid or volunteer work experience with adults with severe and persistent substance use disorder and must meet the requirements of 201 KRS 309.0831 for Temporary Registered Alcohol and Drug Peer Support Specialist. Submit to and pass a criminal record check, driver check and drug screening.