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

Learning Points

The language used by Johnson affirms the value that ex-patients can bring to the service, beyond what tradition staff can provide. He says, it’s ‘the natural credibility, the natural credential of life experience that they bring, they’ve been there. We encourage our peer staff to use the credential ITE after their names – I’m the evidence. It’s me, I’m a real person and yes, I was in your shoes’ (Johnson, 2009b).  

Recovery Innovations is supporting mental health services in five states in the US, and its training programmes have been used in England, Scotland and New Zealand as well as in the US. Johnson is clear that if peer support is to be effective a cultural shift is required, so that the peers are not seen as amateurs working alongside the ‘real’ staff. As he says, it is ‘real work, not sheltered work or therapy’, and it needs a salary that reflects that. Quality training is crucial, for peers and for existing staff. There also needs to be specific, tailored jobs for peers, along with a career training ladder so that peers can progress to more senior positions. This will not happen if peer support remains peripheral. Johnson highlights the need to move to a critical mass of peers to provide a tipping point within an organisation (2009a.b).

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