I was thinking back recently on my role as a peer support specialist and its definition. When I started in the role, I researched it and I wasn’t really able to find a clear definition on the web. This was frustrating. After nine months and additional education, I thought I would share my thoughts on this role, why it exist, and most important, why it helps...

Peer Support was born out of a shift from a medical model of treatment to a recovery model for those who suffer mental illness and substance abuse. To understand this, we have to define the difference in the medical model and the recovery model.

The Medical Model is a supportive model when it comes to addressing symptoms. The patient has symptoms and medication is adjusted and additional therapy is offered until symptoms subside. The medical model definition of recovery or wellness is the patient no longer has symptoms so severe that it requires hospitalization or additional treatment. Now their is a problem with the medical model. Myself and many of my peers believe a definition of recovery is a appropriate satisfactory contentment in life(there’s more, but this is put into a very short sentence).

When I have recovery, I manage my symptoms better. So when questions are raised and emphasis is on how the patient will reintegrate back into society, the workforce, have better relationships, and self-manage stress is their environment, the medical model ask only “is the patient having symptoms?”.

The recovery model attempts to answer these other aspects that are just as vital to mental wellness and it is a closer definition than the medical model for me and many of my peers as to what recovery is. Components of the medical model are always a must for recovery, but the recovery model increases the ability to self-regulate and increases overall quality of life for myself and many of my peers.

That’s where we fit in as peer specialist. To understand what it is that we do takes me back to a time and another place in my life, not with a peer, but with a doctor(what?!).

The year was 2000 and I had just been released from the Norfolk regional center. My psychiatrist was a excellent. He was one of those doctors that you see and say to yourself “he is in the zone”. Patients loved him, staff loved him because he was so effective. At that time in my life, what gave me some relief from my symptoms was studying math and astrophysics. After a couple of visits, something happened that I couldn’t have dreamed of. My doctor told me astrophysics was also one of his hobbies! So when we had our weekly sessions, we discussed things time travel, black holes, and gravitation. For the brief period of time in his office I no longer had delusions, depression, the trauma from the loss of my old life, we were just 2 people talking(wow). I noticed that this feeling of wellness didn’t always leave when I walked out of his office, but would stay with me for a few days. He knew I was very sick and we would discuss meds and symptoms for short periods, but the focus was on something awesome. It was mutuality. Mutuality, the ability to relate to shared experiences of others.

Peers provide mutuality to the patient on a cognitive level of support and shared experiences that can also provide motivation and hope. Questions are answered on everything from our past recovery to starting a blog. Our role includes family sessions where explaining our experience with treatments that apply to us and doctor consultations where we can answer questions and share our insight on treatment. We also offer our views to coworkers without mental illness to assist them with their job.

The peer specialist position requires work and dedication. It is a calling for those of us who gains recovery by providing hope to others and reaching out in this way. Our duty is not only to our patients, but a general responsibility to promote wellness, advocacy, and recovery to those who encounter us in our role.