This past Monday, Mental Health America, the National Association of Peer Supporters, the Mental Health Liaison Group, our Alliance for Rights and Recovery, the Congressional Addiction, Treatment, and Recovery Caucus and the Congressional Mental Health Caucus sponsored a congressional briefing on peer support services and the peer support workforce. As central items was to seek Congressional support for passage of the Providing Empathetic and Effective Recovery (PEER) Support Act.
The PEER Act The PEER Support Act will address barriers to practice and support the peer support specialist field by:
- Directing the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to revise the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system to create a distinct classification for peer support specialists to ensure accurate data reporting on the peer support specialist profession.
- Codifying the Office of Recovery in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to:
- Provide leadership in the identification of new and emerging issues related to recovery support services and to
- Research and publish best practice recommendations to States and entities that employ peer specialists for training, certification, and supervision of peer support specialists
- support ongoing professional development of peer support specialists; an Issue recommendations on the creation of career pathways for peer support specialists.
See more here. The briefing included remarks from Congressman Adrian Smith (R, Nebraska) and a representative from Congressman Paul Tonko (D, NYS) and our allies MHA’s Caren Howard, Vesper Moore, Tiara Springer-Love, NAPS’ Dana Fogelson and Blue Cross’ Lauren Foster.