Creating a Purposeful Peer Job: Essential Tips and Strategies

Slide Note

Gain insights into creating a meaningful peer job through understanding the role, job responsibilities, and effective hiring practices. Explore the difference between peer role and peer job, along with valuable tips for a successful hire in peer support positions. Enhance your knowledge to develop a peer role with purpose and significance.

izon933 Follow

Uploaded on Sep 19, 2024 | 0 Views

Download Presentation

Please find below an Image/Link to download the presentation.

The content on the website is provided AS IS for your information and personal use only. It may not be sold, licensed, or shared on other websites without obtaining consent from the author. Download presentation by click this link. If you encounter any issues during the download, it is possible that the publisher has removed the file from their server.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

PEER WITH PURPOSE How to create a peer job worth doing! Presenter and creator: Lynnae Brown Director, Howie The Harp Advocacy Center lbrown@communityaccess.org

Peer with Purpose Learning Objectives The difference between Peer role and Peer job The factors that go into developing a Peer job Interview and tips for a successful hire

Housekeeping Q and A at the end to ensure we get through material. Take what resonates for you and leave the rest.

Caveats No Vatican of peer support = opinions vary in the Peer community Providing a framework to work from no definite answers For this presentation: Peer = professional role/job

Background Director of a peer training program (middle management) Requests I receive/feedback I get from peers: Requests from employers asking HTH for Peers without job descriptions New Peer hires being asked so what do you do? Working Peers monitoring participants (mini-case managers, medication compliance, spies for clinicians) Sorry (not sorry) for any sass !

How to create an effective Peer job? How do you hire social workers? you know what social workers do you understand the intersection of what your participants need and what social workers do The same energy you put into understanding what a social worker does Is the same energy you need to understand what a Peer can do.

Peer Role VS Peer Job Peer role Peer role overall purpose of Peer presence on a team of service providers (why) Peer job Peer job job responsibilities in a work environment based on the Peer role (what)

Peer role why? Analogy Scenario: New parent World renowned child psychologists World renowned pediatrician Every day parents It takes a village

Peer role Model hope and recovery possibilities Model hope and recovery possibilities That diagnosis is not an identity or death sentence. To reclaim full humanity and overall life wants/needs/choices Recovery is holistic not symptom management (medical model) Recovery happens in relationship Recovery happens between/among people

Peer Role Being in relationship matters We live in a capitalistic country where full humanity is not valued (see wages of anyone who cares for people) Yet in our bones we know that being with other people is essential (see effects of the pandemic on our collective well being) The role of Peers is about being and presence, not just doing.

Peer Job/Employment Depends on the services being provided and the needs of the participants. How can the role of Peer (Peer Support) augment the recovery services for participants? Various titles: Peer Counselor coaching/one on one support Peer Facilitator runs groups Peer Bridger connecting participants to services Peer Advocate amplify the wants/needs of participants Peer Specialist catch all phrase for Peer work Peer Navigator help participants through bureaucratic systems

Factors to develop a Peer Job What s the endgame for overall services? What is the experience you hope participants have with your services/programming while in program? What do you hope participants will say to their friends/family or anyone that asks about their experience with your services? How would you like participants to think about their experience with your services years down the road?

Factors to develop a Peer Job 1. Envision the endgame and work backwards 2. Consider the Peer Role (parent analogy) 3. Research your state peer certification for ethics peers do and don t do. (Ex. Medication compliance = NO!) 4. What is a gap in service that a person with similar lived experience could offer your participants that supports the overall intention of your services? (What can being support?) 5. What skills does a Peer applicant need to meet the needs of the job what can you/willing to teach, what are non-negotiables? (ex. Computer skills, social skills for effective participant engagement) ethics about what

Myth # 1 Hiring Peers If someone has lived experience with mental health recovery, they can do peer work. (Like hiring a social worker by their degree only) Experience does NOT equal - People/engagement skills Computer skills Collaboration skills Communication skills You have to assess for the skills you need from people

Myth # 2 Hiring Peers The Peer will know exactly what to do on the job since they have lived experience. Clear job description Clear expectations (what does a job well done look like?) Collaborate with Peer about what participants may need (along with asking participants) Supervisiors/managers upholds vision of programming standard for the work of staff to live into

Myth # 3 Hiring Peers Pathologizing social skills instead of considering: New to social service culture (nice and polite, gaslight-y) The challenge in balancing using lived experience with professional boundaries (supervisor needs to support peers) Consider Other non staff use supervision as therapy Other non staff lack boundaries

Example Inpatient Unit - Peer s job Assure people that recovery is possible mental health struggle is not a death sentence Get people thinking about life outside and what they want to return to or create. (spark interest in wanting to move forward) Read the newspaper and discuss topics of interest (avoid religion/politics) Trivia games/charades/question games that spark good times in people s lives (the first time you ate candy!) Do puzzles, crafts, origami and just chat

Hiring (not just for Peer jobs) What skills/abilities must you have now? What skills/abilities are you willing to teach or can allow to be developed over time? What are your cannot deal withs Ask scenario questions so you get a feel for how applicants think through issues Ask questions based on something they said in real time, so you get a feel for applicants process turnaround time. Ask questions about what do they think your participants are dealing with/working through to see if their vision matches what you see and hear from your participants. (Insightful can they see beyond themselves)

Supervising Strength based feedback focus on what works (be specific) Assume staff mean to do a good job (hold space for that) Normalize and model: Making mistakes Acknowledging/apologizing/learning from mistakes Re-assessing Focus on efficacy for participant (not on whether the Peer is right or wrong)

Last word As a supervisor, you are building a team You and your staff (including Peers) are on the same side supporting participants recovery ACT LIKE IT!