By Gita Enders, LMSW, MA, NYPS/A, PeerTAC Consultant

Congratulations on your decision to include peer specialists/advocates (PS/As) in your service setting! Like all other staff, a PS/A needs a comprehensive job description, but you don’t know where to start. This task may be particularly difficult for Human Resources departments, as they are likely dealing with known quantities such as clinical or administrative professionals, and have had little exposure to the role of the PS/A. Even, or perhaps especially, for licensed mental health professionals, who are presumed to understand other roles in the clinic, such as that of the prescriber, therapist, case manager and ancillary personnel, it may feel strange to craft a job description specifying tasks and using language that is appropriate to the position. Here we hope to offer some guidance for creating a person-centered, recovery-oriented job description to the benefit of both your organization and your PS/A. 

Familiarize Yourself with Peer Support Values

There will always be some tension surrounding a profession’s values and responsibilities. For example, social workers prize both autonomy, encouraging a person to make their own decisions, and beneficence, or doing “what’s best” for the person being served. It is hoped that their job descriptions will help guide their tasks while centering their values. And so it is with PS/A. 

For adult Certified Peer Specialists (CPS), consulting the National Association of Peer Supporters (N.A.P.S.) National Practice Guidelines for Peer Specialists and Supervisors: https://www.peersupportworks.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/National-Practice-Guidelines-for-Peer-Specialists-and-Supervisors-1.pdf. This is a good first step in becoming familiar with peer support values and practices. Another important step is to learn the New York Peer Specialist Certification Board’s Code of Ethical Conduct: https://nypscb.org/wp-content/themes/nypscb/files/NYPSCB%20Code%20of%20Ethical%20Conduct%20Handbook%20January%202018%20Version%201_2.pdf 

For Family Peer Advocates (FPA) consult the Family Peer Support Services Definition available on the Families Together in New York State site: https://www.ftnys.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Family-Support-Services-Definition-2020.pdf. As with the adult peer specialist resources, this is a good step in becoming familiar with FPA services and qualifications. Another good step is to learn the FPA Code of Ethics: https://www.ftnys.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/FINAL-FPA-Code-of-Ethics-2020-final.pdf 

For Youth Peer Advocates (YPA) consult the Youth Peer Support Services Definition also on the Families Together in New York State site: https://www.ftnys.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/YPS-Services-Definition-6.25.24.pdf. As with the adult and family resources, this is a good step in becoming familiar with the YPA services and qualifications. Another good step is to learn the YPA Code of Ethics: https://www.ftnys.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Code-of-Ethics-YPA-Professional-Application-2020-fillable.pdf 

Review Existing Job Descriptions

A handy way to avoid cooptation and peer drift is to review your internal job descriptions for clinical professionals. It is safe to say that tasks that are already assigned to clinicians, case workers, and administrative staff can all be excluded from the document specifying the responsibilities of the PS/A. Although this may seem obvious, it is easy to allow verbs such as “assess,” “escort,” and “schedule,” to creep into the job description written by the most well-meaning supervisor or HR specialist.

Dialogue with Experienced PS/A

If this is your first time working with PS/A, and you yourself are not sure how they will contribute to the team, consider reaching out to PS/A that have been doing the work and are grounded in both theory and practice. You can invite them to be a guest speaker for your staff.

If your MHOTRS is part of a larger system, contact other clinics to see if you can speak with, or shadow, someone who is already doing peer support work and see how this fits into your agency. If you are working with a standalone MHOTRS, or are located in a sparsely populated rural area, consider reaching out to peer-run organizations such as Baltic Street Wellness Solutions or Hands Across Long Island (HALI) or People USA and or Recovery Options Made Easy (ROME) and asking for assistance in creating the job description. For a Directory of Peer-Run and Family-Run Organizations that list these organizations by region and county: https://peertac.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/PTAC-018_PeerTAC_Combined_Directory_101223.pdf

More opportunities to connect with experienced PS/A who can talk to your organization could be through the N.A.P.S. New York Peer Advancement Network (NYPAN) https://www.peersupportworks.org/programs/new-york-peer-advancement-network-ny-pan/, or the Academy of Peer Services Virtual Learning Community (https://aps-community.org/). And of course you can connect through PeerTAC (Ask PeerTAC on the website or email info@peertac.org). Watch for future learning opportunities to learn more about creating job descriptions here at PeerTAC.

Do Your Research!

There are a number of existing resources for creating job descriptions for PS/A. It is worth checking out A Handbook for Working with Individuals in Peer Roles by Sera Davidow: https://www.psresources.info/images/stories/peer_role_booklet_peer_side.pdf and with specific guidelines for job description creation, The Provider’s Handbook on Developing & Implementing Peer Roles by Lyn Legere: https://www.psresources.info/images/stories/A_Providers_Handbook_on_Developing__Implementing_Peer_Roles.pdf 

Three mini-courses (toolkits) about hiring and onboarding PS/A on the PeerTAC website have some tips as well. They have been developed separately for CPS, FPA, and YPA.

Certified Peer Specialist (CPS) Hiring and Onboarding Toolkit) https://peertac.org/resources/certified-peer-specialist-cps-hiring-toolkit/

Family Peer Advocate (FPA) Hiring and Onboarding Toolkit https://peertac.org/resources/family-peer-advocate-hiring-toolkit/

Youth Peer Advocate (YPA) Hiring and Onboarding Toolkit  https://peertac.org/resources/youth-peer-advocate-hiring-toolkit

Another good source of information is the online Job Bank for the New York Peer Advancement Network (NYPAN): https://www.peersupportworks.org/jobs/. You will be able to view a wide variety of job descriptions and choose elements of those that make the most sense for the job responsibilities a PS/A would perform in your organization.

Consider Qualifications

If you are used to establishing qualifications for clinical professionals, with clear licensing, educational, and experiential requirements, you may find describing qualifications for PS/A in your MHOTRS a bit daunting. For instance, some people seeking PS/A positions have been out of the traditional workforce for some time, and some have never held a traditional job. While many PS/A have attained higher education in the form of advanced degrees, many will not have completed more than a high school diploma or equivalent, such as a GED or TASC. Moreover, many of the desirable traits in a PS/A, such as empathy, compassion, and teamwork, are not easily codified into concrete academic requirements. So think carefully about what prior education and experience is absolutely necessary to perform the job. in a MHOTRS, this may be at a minimum of a provisional state certification (CPS-P, FPA-P, or YPA-P) if the work of the PS/A requires Medicaid billing – but exclude items that may seem routine for other professional staff, such as experience with a specific Electronic Health Record system.

Watch Your Language

Your formal job description is an excellent place to start using person-centered and recovery-oriented language! Do not blame yourself for what may appear to be an unconscious bias toward doing “for” people instead of “with” people, but rather lean in to what you already know about support and recovery. 

One example would be using language that establishes hierarchy:

Power Dynamic / Hierarchy	Shared Power / Equality Focused
Leads support groups	Facilitates support groups
Teaches wellness strategies	Shares wellness strategies

Another would be using clinical rather than everyday language.

Clinical	Common Language
The client is manic	The person is happy and excited
The patient is noncompliant with treatment	The participant is experiencing intolerable side effects

Compare and Contrast

This might be the time to take out all of your job descriptions and review associated tasks and qualifications. They are a trove of rich material, and the best way to ensure that tasks assigned to PS/A are not duplicative of, or replacements for, traditional clinical and case management roles. Reviewing the existing job descriptions is a good time to plan for inclusion of the PS/A and how they can support, but not duplicate, the work of the existing members of the team. Be careful not to subordinate the role of the PS/A, i.e., transferring to the PS/A administrative support or outreach tasks normally done by clerks or case managers. On the other hand, it’s a great time to review responsibilities to ensure that there are opportunities for hand-offs and referral to and from the PS/A and adjacent clinicians.

Reach Out to Peer-Run Agencies

A peer-run agency is one in which more than half (at least 51%) of the Board and employees are people with lived experience of a mental health or substance use challenge (or both). Chances are that they have long-term PS/A working with any number of programs ranging from drop-in and recovery centers, to supported housing, to supported-employment and -education. If possible, meet with someone in peer leadership at the agency, and ask about job descriptions in use there. If these can be made available, also talk with PS/A staff and recipients to discover appropriate tasks and what kinds of support people receiving services are benefitting or would like to be benefitting from. A bonus in consulting with a peer-run agency is that no task in any job description is likely to be outside the guiding principles or core values of peer, family, or youth support (have a clinical component).

Access Guidance

The OMH guidance for PS/A working in MHOTRS can be used to assist in framing tasks, with particular emphasis on the PS/A’s role as a support to the recipient, as well as outlining some best practices around providing connection and inclusion in the community: https://omh.ny.gov/omhweb/clinic_restructuring/part599/mhotrs-peer-support-services-guidance.pdf

Another excellent resource is the Peer Recovery Center of Excellence’s guide to roles and tasks: https://peerrecoverynow.org/wp-content/uploads/2023-JUL-12-prcoe-define-job.pdf. 

You will feel much more comfortable assigning tasks once you have accessed these materials.

Ensure Your Grounding

It is said that the best way to learn something is by teaching it. When you have accessed the available resources and have gained an understanding of the role of the PS/A, consider holding an in-service training for your clinical staff. Sharing the fact that going forward, peer services will be included in treatment options available to your recipients, as well as familiarizing the staff with the array of services PS/As can provide, will be a learning experience for you as you assess the impact that PS/As will have on treatment planning and service delivery. This is a great way to get feedback, while also reassuring team members that the PS/A is not coming to replace clinicians. Take particular care to let everyone know that the PS/A can provide billable services pre-admission, which can only be viewed as helpful to the MHOTRS in terms of subsequent communications with recipients. If possible, find out whether a local PS/A is available to address the staff.

Put It on Paper

Now that you have become familiar with peer ethics and values, the kinds of supportive services that are appropriate to deliver, and what is available to you in your MHOTRS, e.g., pre-admission services, group facilitation, and system navigation assistance, and you are on firm ground concerning the role of everyone on your treatment team, you are ready to draft your description. Still unsure? Reach out to PeerTAC, and we’ll help you along.

Supervising to the Job Description

Finally, after you have hired the PS/A and trained essential staff on the role, refer to the job description regularly during supervision. You may want to do it more often for new peer staff, but should plan to revisit it at least quarterly. This allows you to discuss how the PS/A is doing and identify anything not within the job description. This helps you to redirect the PS/A as needed to stay focused on their scope of practice and their core values, principles, and ethics. It also allows you to revisit and potentially revise the job description as needed. 

Congratulations on Your Progress

Taking the time to be thoughtful about the job the PS/A will do within the organization, how it will fits in with roles others on the team have, and making sure the job description aligns with the core values, principles, ethics, and scope of practice is an important way to be sure PS/A and co-workers are clear about their roles and how they will be evaluated. This helps create a work environment where everyone knows their part so they can work smoothly together.