Peer Support Specialist

Job Description

Job Description

OVERVIEW:

The Peer Support Specialist works to encourage and maintain a positive environment for clients we serve who are living with persistent mental illness and or substance use disorders to learn and grow in their recovery. The successful candidate will facilitate peer groups, assist clients in articulating personal goals, monitor, engage and evaluate consumer involvement in social and life skills; support, guide and encourage skills for each person’s unique recovery journey.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Provide education and on-going exploration of needs to peers related to their recovery through all phases-engagement, initiation, stabilization and maintenance.
• Act as a liaison between peers and the professionals involved in their lives.
• Help peers identify strengths, weaknesses and barriers that may exist in their journey towards recovery.
• Model personal responsibility for recovery.
• Assist peers in recovery with community connections and linkages when needed for the betterment of the individual’s goals set for recovery. This includes helping peers identify and connect with natural support.
• Learn and assist peers in recovery to utilize positive problem-solving skills.
• Engage in outreach.
• Promote self-determination, self-advocacy, well-being and independence with peers in recovery.
• Support peers in recovery in their work towards vocational goals.
• Mentoring/assisting with reentry/treatment planning.
• Providing a “familiar face” on the day of release from prison.
• Supporting system navigation (accessing housing, employments, SSI/SSDI benefits, etc.)
• Providing outreach at reentry to transition individuals at risk of opioid overdose to treatment/support.
• Helping connect to probation/parole officers.
• Assisting with conditions of probation/parole and balancing treatment.
• Accessing resources and services.
• Providing prosocial interaction opportunities.
• Providing technical training to those who experience a “new world” due to technological advances’
• Perform other duties as assigned by supervisor.

QUALIFICATIONS:

Requirements for PRS certification:

The following is required for a complete and compliant PRS certification application:

• Have a high school diploma or GED (there is no waiver or exception to this requirement)
• Complete a certification application in eLicense.
• Complete eBased Academy Certified Peer Recovery Supporter Learning Plan.
• Pass the online Ohio Peer Recovery Supporter Certification Exam with a score of 70% or higher.
• Complete a Bureau of Criminal Investigations (BCI) background check and a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) criminal records check within one year of application submission.
• Have no record of a disqualifying offense.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Strong organizational and task prioritization abilities
• Ability to handle confidential information with integrity and sensitivity

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Prolonged periods of standing and walking.
• Frequently required to sit, reach with hands and arms, and stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl.
• Must be able to lift and/or move 25 pounds.

We are an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or veteran status.