The peer-employment-training approach of Recovery Innovations in Arizona

Change Management

The recovery programme developed ten years ago, out of a concern to change a mental health service that was too much focused on crisis management and patient stabilisation. Gene Johnson, CEO of Recovery Innovations, and colleagues identified the need to move away from stabilisation towards a recovery model. One of the ways they sought to achieve this was through bringing peer support services from the fringes (where they had been seen as a nice ‘add-on’) to the mainstream of provision. Johnson and others developed a Peer Employment Training programme which is now used in 16 US states, which gives people who have used psychiatric services the opportunity to train as Peer Supporters. The national Center for Medicare / Medicaid Services has endorsed Peer Support as a best practice and now encourages the use of peer support within mental health services.

The 70-hour training programme is designed to train people who have been diagnosed with serious mental illness to develop the skills to gain competitive employment providing peer support. Evaluation by Boston University has shown high levels of employment in psychiatric services for people completing the programme and higher retention rates than for conventional staff (Hutchinson et al, 2006).  

Dr. Catherine Needham provided Governance International with this case study on 9 March 2010.