Peer specialists are people who have personally struggled with mental health or substance abuse problems but are now in recovery and helping others. They work for community behavioral health centers, psychiatric inpatient facilities and other health-care providers.
“These programs are proliferating everywhere you look. There’s a lot of evidence to show that peers can support and acclimate someone to a new life of recovery,” said Kim Nelson, the regional administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration for Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. She worked as a peer specialist for a decade before landing her current job.
In Nebraska, peer specialists are saving providers' money and reducing readmission rates.
“Thirty day readmissions for mental health patients is usually around 30 percent nationally. We had been hovering around 20 percent before implementing the program. Now we’re down to about 13 percent,” said Linda Knudsen, education coordinator of the Bryan Medical Center, a nonprofit health center in Lincoln, Neb.