INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE IN RESEARCH ON PEER SUPPORT SUPERVISION COMPETENCIES
RESPOND HERE BY FRIDAY, JUNE 24th EOD
Dear Peer Support Specialist Workforce and Supervisors of Peer Support Specialists,
Despite various challenges that we continue to encounter and witness in our communities and throughout the world, we hope this finds you reasonably well. We recognize how full your schedules are and appreciate your willingness to consider taking part in this current phase of important research on peer support supervision competencies that we began to explore last year.
Following a series of focus groups we conducted during the past year to develop competency statements for a five-function model of supervision, we are now in the next phase of this exciting research project to advance knowledge about peer support specialist supervision. The overall project goals are to 1) Conduct a needs assessment of supervisors and peer support specialists that will inform the activities of the Community of Practice (CoP) and the curriculum design for future Academy of Peer Specialists (APS) courses for the Supervisor Track and eventual credential for supervisors who meet certification standards for supervising peer support staff; and 2) Employ a Delphi method by which we seek to validate the five-function model of supervision (The Five Critical Functions of Supervision) which has been included in many presentations, workshops, and a peer-reviewed journal article.
We are pleased to share with you the final competency statements developed by focus groups in which some of you participated. We are now conducting a larger survey to help inform this final phase. The survey will be available from Monday, 6/6 until Friday, 6/24 and should take about 20 minutes to complete. The survey asks you to provide demographic information and to rate a series of competency statements for importance, frequency, and criticality. Your responses will enable us to complete this project and subsequently produce additional guidance for the peer support specialist workforce, supervisors of peer support specialists, and other stakeholders in your organization. We expect to share findings by early fall.
We are truly excited by this opportunity to collectively describe the breadth and depth of peer support specialist supervision! Thank you for interest, commitment, and support of this project. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions.
Jonathan P. Edwards and the Research Team (Amy B. Spagnolo, Rita Cronise, Gita Enders, and Joanne Forbes)
Jonathan P. Edwards, Ph.D., LCSW, ACSW, NYCPS (he, him, his)
Program Consultant, Prevention & Treatment Systems Support Unit (PTSSU)
Bureau of Alcohol and Drug Use Prevention, Care, and Treatment
NYC Dept. of Health & Mental Hygiene
42-09 28th Street, 19-76
Long Island City, NY 11101-4132
jedwards4@health.nyc.gov
Ph: (929) 210-1822